The Cook County Bar Association will conduct a forum at 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office about diversity issues raised by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on public school programs. Call (312) 630-1157 for details.

Speakers include retired appellate justice R. Eugene Pincham, Prof. Randolph N. Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, Cook County Bar Vice President Marian P. Phillips, and Clyde E. Murphy, executive director of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“This court decision could lead to the demise of the promotion of racial diversity in the student body as well as special elementary and high school programs established to increase under-represented racial groups in the areas of law, medicine, engineering, architecture and other fields,” the association said in a prepared statement.

“Yet, in almost every aspect of American life today, including public school educational funding, large racial disparities still exist,” it continued.

The Cook County Bar, which was established in a time when black lawyers were denied membership in other legal organizations, expressed its wholehearted support for the premise of racial diversity.

“It is worthy and beneficial to share these ideals with school-age children,” the bar stated, adding support for equal funding of schools.

“Clearly, it is cheaper in the long run to provide excellent public schools in all neighborhoods than to pay the high financial and societal costs of educational failure.”