In order to create a more just and equitable society, the Houston Institute aims to be an organizing force for impactful research, innovative strategic advocacy, socially engaged legal education, and coalition-building on matters central to civil rights in the 21st century.
Our work
The Guinier Project
The Guinier Project combines democracy reform and a focus on racial equality by coordinating a network of interdisciplinary experts to study, identify, and advocate for electoral systems that foster a healthy multiracial democracy and that increase representation for and accountability to all voters, particularly those who are most often disenfranchised.
Race & Law Clinic
The Houston Institute’s advocacy work is anchored in our Race & Law Clinic, which offers Harvard Law students the opportunity to do hands-on litigation and advocacy in a variety of civil rights areas. The aim is to develop, teach, and practice a movement-oriented lawyering and advocacy approach that builds toward a renewed and effective civil rights regime designed to address present and future conditions.
Equality & Technology
Technological advances, including AI, have far-reaching implications for ensuring equality based on race and other legally-protected identities. Many controversies have already arisen at the intersection of technology and anti-discrimination law. Further, anti-discrimination law is, on its own, experiencing significant reassessment and redefinition amidst demographic and political shifts. This project aims to explore the limitations of the law’s current approach to equality and discrimination and the challenges and opportunities that AI, in particular, presents for the future of anti-discrimination law and legal commitments to equal protection and non-discrimination.
Upcoming & Recent Events
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Collateral Consequences Speaker Series: September – December 2025
Collateral Consequences: Climate Change’s Impacts on Democracy Join us this fall for a seven-part virtual
Our Story
The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School (CHHIRJ) was launched in September 2005 by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law. The Institute honors and carries on the unfinished work of Charles Hamilton Houston, one of the 20th century’s most important, but lesser known, legal scholars and civil rights litigators.
