Harold Norris taught constitutional law, criminal law, and women and the law courses to more than 5,000 students during his 35 years at the Detroit College of Law (MSU) from 1961 to 1996. Born on April 7, 1918 in Detroit, Norris received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan. He then joined the U.S. Army Air Corps before earning his law degree at Columbia. A widely published author and poet, he is widely known for “The Liberty Bell,” a poem about the rights of man reverberating from the cracked bell; the piece hangs in the lobby of the home of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Professor Norris, who helped draft the Bill of Rights of the Michigan Constitution, vigorously fought against racial discrimination in Detroit—his hometown—during the turbulent 1960s. He considered his 1991 book, Education for Popular Sovereignty through Implementing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the “capstone” of his career. In 2011, he received the inaugural John W. Reed Michigan Lawyer Legacy Award, which is presented periodically by the State Bar of Michigan to a law school professor whose influence on Michigan lawyers has elevated the quality of legal practice in the state. Norris died on October 14, 2013.
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