130-year-old Harvard Law Review elects Nigerian as first black woman president

A Nigerian, ImeIme Umana, has made history as the first black woman president of the Harvard Law Review, a prestigious legal journal in the United States.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama was the first black to be elected president of the Harvard Review in 1990.

Ms. Umana, who is of Nigerian descent, but hails from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States, has become the 131st leader of the organization

The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School.

As Harvard Law Review president, Ms.Umana will oversee more the than 90 student editors and permanent staff members who make up the Law Review and communicate with writers, including senior faculty members.

As a Harvard undergraduate in Lowell House, Ms. Umana earned a joint concentration in government and African American studies and served as the president of the Institute of Politics.

According to a Harvard Crimson report, the outgoing president of the Law Review, Michael L. Zuckerman, wrote in an email that he was excited to see where Ms. Umana will take the publication in the coming year.

“ImeIme is one of the most brilliant, thoughtful, and caring people I’ve ever met, and the Law Review is in phenomenally good hands,” Mr. Zuckerman email read.

According to Mr. Zuckerman, candidates for the Law Review’s top post must answer questions from a forum of editors, write responses to submitted questions, and participate in mock editorial activities.

This year’s field of 12 candidates featured eight women and eight people of colour.

“ImeIme’s election as the Law Review’s first female black president is historic,” Mr. Zuckerman wrote. “For a field in which women and people of colour 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.”

“Knowing ImeIme, I can’t wait to applaud her in a year’s time for the extraordinary work that I am certain she will do,” Mr. Zuckerman wrote.

Ms. Umana’s election comes as the Law Review aims to accept editors from a wider variety of backgrounds.