Margaret Burnham

Margaret A. Burnham is an American lawyer, academic, and former judge whose career has centered on civil rights, human rights, and racial justice. She is a University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law and founded the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, an effort that investigates racist killings and other injustices from the Jim Crow era.

Earlier in her career, she served as a judge in Boston and worked in public service and legal advocacy. Across these roles, she became known for connecting legal practice with the long history of racial violence and the ways institutions helped sustain it.

As an author, she is especially known for By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners, a book that examines how courts, police, and other officials enabled terror and denied justice. Her writing and research have helped bring buried cases back into public view, making her an important voice for readers interested in law, history, and the unfinished work of civil rights.