Jamila Jefferson-Jones

• Biography

  Jamila Jefferson-Jones writes about property and wealth attainment by communities and groups on the margins of society. She examines the ways members of favored racialized groups exclude minoritized populations from public and private spaces, thus enforcing the racial segregation of space and racist notions of supremacy. Her work harnesses critical race methodologies, focusing in part on the use or threat of police action against members of disfavored groups. Her recent article on this subject, #LivingWhileBlack: Blackness As Nuisance, was published in the American University Law Review and featured in the New York Times.
  
  Jefferson-Jones is a professor of law and also the associate director of Property, Equity and Justice for the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. Before joining Wayne Law, she was on the School of Law faculty at the University of Missouri Kansas City. She teaches courses in Property, Real Estate Transactions, Fair Housing, and Entrepreneurial Urban Development.

  Jefferson-Jones is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College. Prior to entering academia, she practiced law for over a decade at firms in the District of Columbia and in her hometown of New Orleans.

• Degrees and Certifications

  J.D., Harvard Law School

  B.A., Harvard College

• Selected Publications

  “Driving While Black” as “Living While Black”, 106 Iowa L. Rev. 2281 (2021)

  #LivingWhileBlack: Blackness as Nuisance, 69 Am. U. L. Rev. 863 (2020)

  Advising the Smart City: When Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are the Subject, of Professional Advice, What is a Government Lawyer to Do?, 50 U. Tol. L. Rev. 447 (2019)

• Social Science Research Network
  View SSRN Profile
• Accomplishments
  • Jamila Jefferson-Jones presented at Boston University School of Law as a part of the school’s Congresswoman Barbara Jordan Speaker Series on Race, Law, & Inequality. The talk was featured in Boston University’s The Daily Free Press, “‘Driving While Black’: Law professor discusses ‘racial territoriality’ and racism on America’s roads."
  • Jamila Jefferson-Jones presented on critical race theory as a part of Shifting Landscapes, a public lecture series at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts in Ludington, MI, and on Zoom. 
  • Jamila Jefferson-Jones received the Advocacy Award from the American Bar Association's Section of State and Local Government Law Section.