Inventory to the Percy Lavon Julian Family Papers

  Archives Homepage

Percy Lavon Julian Family Papers
Series III: Folder 17
Julian Memorial Lecture: Percy L. Julian, Jr.
April 8, 1993

     Dr. Percy L. Julian, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Dr. Anna Johnson Julian and Dr. Percy L. Julian. He was educated in the Oak Park Public Schools and received the B.A. Degree from Oberlin College in 1962 with a major in political science. He also studied at Northwestern University and the University of Colorado before he entered the Law School of the University of Wisconsin, where he received the Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree in 1966. In 1981 he received the Diploma from Centro de Idiomas, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. He has practiced law in Madison , Wisconsin, since 1967 and is presently a member of the firm of Julian, Olson, and Lasker, S.C.

     In 1967 he was admitted to the Wisconsin State Bar. Since then he has gained admission and holds bar membership in the Wisconsin Supreme Court; the United States Supreme Court; and a dozen U.S. Courts of Appeal and U.S. Districts in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Arizona. He has practiced before courts in Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and the District of Columbia.   Attorney Julian's fields of concentration are in Civil Rights Litigation, Constitutional Law, and Entertainment and Copyright Laws. In the past he has been a lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Wisconsin and in the years 1978-1982 was a lecturer at the Madison Area Technical College.

     He is a member of the American Bar Association, a Cooperating Attorney and Special Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a Cooperating Attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, and former Cooperating Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. In the practice of his profession he has represented civil rights workers, students, and college professors in many states through out the country. Since 1989 he has been a Training Consultant  to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the New Fair Housing Act of 1988. Percy L. Julian, Jr., is one of America's outstanding young trial lawyers.

     But Percy Julian, Jr., is a man of many talents. In addition to pursuing a legal career, he is also a professional photographer. His photography has been widely published in a variety of media, including the Chicago Tribune, the Wisconsin State Journal, the Capitol Times, Isthmus, Wisconsin Trails Magazine, as well as many other journals. He has been an instructor in color photography at the University of Wisconsin Extension at Madison, 1979-1980.

     Dr. Julian has had close ties with DePauw University for many years. He has been a member of several DePauw Winter Term Missions to both Peru and Africa. He has also served on DePauw's Board of Visitors (1984-1987). Twelve years ago, on April 16, 1981, he gave the Fifth Percy L. Julian Memorial Lecture: "CHINA: ONE MAN'S VIEW." There was a photographic exhibit in the Julian Science Center lobby of a number of his Chinese photos and there was also a breathtakingly-beautiful multi-media lecture, accompanied by Chinese music, presented in the Julian Auditorium. This presentation was aptly described by then-DePauw President Richard Rosser in his statement: "This was a happening." The photos and slides shown were taken on Percy's trip to China in the summer of 1980, when he covered vast distances.

     Since this presentation, Attorney Julian has been a Visiting Professor in fine Arts at DePauw, when he taught a course in color photography during the 1982 Winter Term. He has said of his photography: "I find it extraordinarily difficult to express myself with my pen. I writhe instead with my camera...Photographers, like scientists, see things others do not. For me, every face tells a story. To capture and retell such stories may aid us in understanding what man's life on the planet is all about.."

     Percy's mother, Dr. Anna Johnson Julian, and his sister Faith reside in the Julian family home in Oak Park, Illinois. His daughter, Katherine Ann, is a medical student at the University of California Medical School, San Francisco.

     It is most meaningful that Dr. Julian, Sr.'s son, Percy, Jr., presents this Seventeenth Julian Memorial Lecture as DePauw University celebrates here the second issue of the Percy L. Julian Commemorative U.S. Stamp and the city of Greencastle salutes her former citizen with the proclamation of PERCY L. JULIAN DAY in this community.