Past and present civil rights issues in the western United States will be the subject of APursuing Equal Justice in the West," a conference to be held Feb. 20 and 21 at UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law.

The conference is being held in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education, and the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The conference will be held at the William S. Boyd School of Law (Boyd Hall), Room 102, on the UNLV campus from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Feb. 20 and from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 21. A reception will follow Friday's program.

Leading historians, legal scholars, and activists will be speaking about the pursuit of equal justice in the West from a variety of perspectives. Their topics will include black migration to the West, alien land laws, immigration issues, Indian land disputes, voting rights, black women in the West, gay rights, and Indian children's rights.

Of particular interest to Las Vegans will be the panel AMemories of the Struggles,@ which will feature a roundtable discussion by members of the civil rights movement in Las Vegas. Scheduled to speak are former Nevada Gov. Mike O=Callaghan, State Sen. Joe Neal, former Moulin Rouge owner Sarann Knight-Preddy, Operation Life founder Ruby Duncan, and the Rev. Donald Clark, former president of the local NAACP. Clark County District Court Judge Michael Douglas will moderate. Several others who were involved in the local civil rights movement are expected to attend.

Presenters from the law school will include Joan Howarth, associate dean of clinical studies, and professors Annette Appell and Sylvia Lazos. Other local speakers will include UNLV history professors Willard Rollings and Barbara Wallace; Claytee White, director of the Lied Library's Oral History Research Center; Michael Kellar, counsel to Bullivant Houser Bailey in Irvine, Calif., and the son of the late Las Vegas NAACP leader and attorney Charles Kellar; and history professor Michael Green of the Community College of Southern Nevada.

The conference is free and open to the public. No registration is required. For more information, visit the conference website or contact law school professor Lynne Henderson at 895-2625 or Kim Van Geel at 895-2421.