Founding the DPCC: A Look Back at Our Origins

• In Event: DPCC at 30: A Chair’s Perspective on History, Legacy, and Future

Abstract

As the founding Chair of the Division on People of Color and Crime, Chinita Heard will share the origins of the DPCC, offering a historical account of its creation. This presentation will revisit the early organizing efforts of Black criminologists at the 1994 ASC Conference in Miami, the petition campaign that followed, and the official recognition of the division in 1995. Heard will reflect on the political and academic climate that made the DPCC necessary, the strategic partnerships formed, and the legacy of early leadership in building a space for scholars focused on issues of race, justice, and inequality. Her remarks will ground the audience in the division’s foundational goals and its continued relevance today.

Author

• Chinita Heard, HBCU Criminal Justice Workgroup