Spencer Overton, a Detroit native and George Washington University Law School professor. | Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies photo
A Detroit native will be honored Wednesday by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies for his career centered on law and public policy.
Spencer Overton, a former Joint Center president for a decade, will receive the Louis E. Martin Great American Award. During his tenure, he “restructured the organization and built programs that focused on the future of Black communities, including racial diversity in congressional staff and federal appointments, workforce policy, economic policy, and tech policy,” according to the organization’s website.
Overton is a professor at George Washington University Law School where he is considered a leading election law scholar. Established in 1865, it is the oldest law school in the national capital.
Founded in 1970, the Joint Center is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. “that creates ideas to improve the socioeconomic status and civic engagement of African Americans.”
Overton, 56, is a Southfield High School, Hampton University in Virginia and Harvard University Law School graduate. Overton was a law clerk to the late Judge Damon Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1993 to 1994.
After Keith died in 2019, Overton told the Advance, “Judge Keith has likely hired more clerks of color than any federal judge in the history of the nation, and this diverse group has contributed significantly to the nation and to Michigan in government, business, academia and civil rights.”
Overton, a Washington, D.C. resident, has testified “several times before Congress on policies centered on voter suppression, and the Voting Rights Act, according to the George Washington University Law School website.
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