In 1990, Barack Obama, 28 at that time made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Almost three decades later Imelme Umana,24, a Pennsylvania native of Nigerian descent has become the first black woman elected president of the 130 year old law journal.

       She has been voted president by the Law Review’s 92 student editors. The difficult election process required a thorough dissection of her work and application, and a 12 hour long deliberation of her portfolio. It has been 41 years since the first woman Susan Estrich, was elected. Ms Umana said she now dreams to become a public defender after work experience in the public defender’s office in the Bronx, New York.

      Umana is a joint degree candidate at Harvards Law School and the Kennedy    of 

Government. She studied government and African American studies and also served as president of the student advisory committee at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Umana called her election by the publication’s editorial board a ‘Great privilage’.

       Her empathy for the marginalized is well known. When she graduated from Harvard College in 2014, Umana received the Rev. Peter J Gomes prize, which the African and African American studies department bestows on the student ‘who best epitomizes social responsibility through public service and potential for  distinguished contributions to the public good’.

     Imelme Umana is paving way forfuture generations of African American women - indeed all women of color - as leaders not just rank and file, in the legal profession of tomorrow.   Umana  becomes  president

at a time when the review is pushing to balance the makeup of its student editors with that of the law school. He was selected last month in a rigorous competition that included eight women and eight minority students.    

     Forty six percent of Law Review editors selected last year were women, an increase of about ten percentage points from an average of the previous three years according to The Harvard Crimson. In addition, 41 percent were students of color an increase of 13 percentage points over the preceding years.

       As Harvard Law Review president, Umana will lead a team of more than 90 student editors. Published every month from November to June, the student run journal has grown to become the most circulated law journal in the world.

      Outgoing president Micheal L Zuckerman told that Umana’s election is historic and helps the push for inclusion in legal institutions. “For a field in which women and people of color have for too much of our past been marginalized or underrepresented her election is an important and encouraging step toward a richer      and   more   inclusive   legal 

 conversation”.

     In an interview with the student magazine ‘The Crimson’, Ms Umana said “the descriptive stats of the review haven’t historically been inclusive and so that may signal to some people that it’s not an inclusive place, because it didn’t have an inclusive membership. One of the best ways to signal inclusion is to in fact, diversify the membership”.

       The reasons why Umana’s victory is so celebrated is because, she is only 24! She is holding such a powerful position at this young age. Also, she is a woman; it has a lot of significance in this era which is battling over gender discrimination and crimes against women. She is a Black! This is actually a ray of hope, because it hints that finally the wall between whites and blacks is slowly vanishing.

It was really hard for everyone to accept Obama when he became the President of US. Everybody doubted how a Black will rule the nation. But Obama became one of the most influential leaders around the globe. Umana is also a Black and she too started off her career from Harvard Law Review.                                                                                                                                - Sarika