“We’re small, but we’re mighty,” said Hunter-Hobson, 24, who grew up in Harlem and who is editor in chief of the Journal of Constitutional Law and president of Penn’s Black Law Students Association.
All three women said major developments in the case of Breonna Taylor — a Black woman who was fatally shot by police during a botched raid of her Kentucky apartment in 2020 —“An opportunity was lost,” Sherrod said. “That was quite disheartening.” Students gain membership through a series of competitive writing and editing assessments, and nearly half the student body are admitted. Journal staffs edit and review pieces, sometimes write their own, and some host an annual symposium.
“The greatest gift of working on the journal is you get to watch really great people grapple with the big questions,” Francis said. “You have to think to keep up with it and be decent editors.”Sherrod, Hunter-Hobson, and West said Penn Law has offered valuable connections to preeminent scholars and a network of prestigious alumni. They also cited strong support from classmates through the Black student association.
Hunter-Hobson, Sherrod, and West said the half-dozen or so Black professors on the faculty support them, and they’re grateful for that. But there should be more Black professors.“It would be nice to walk into an office and just see someone who looks like me,” said Sherrod, who got her bachelor’s in environmental studies and political science from Villanova and was a Fulbright scholar in Namibia, where she taught earth science at a primary school.