There is nothing more powerful than a people, than a nation, steeped in its history. And there are few things as noble as honoring our ancestors by remembering.
Lonnie G. Bunch III
To honor the life of Jonny Gammage––a Black man murdered at the hands of police officers––a portion of the Summit’s proceeds benefits the Jonny Gammage Memorial Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship is awarded to current law students with an interest in studying civil rights and social justice issues at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law or the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University.
This year, we will award $5,000 to 2 finalists.
Submissions are OPEN!!!
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until end-of-day, Friday, January 23, 2026. Finalists will be announced in early Spring (i.e., March) 2026.
Eligibility & Application Requirements
To be eligible to apply, candidates must be currently enrolled in the J.D. program at either the University of Pittsburgh School of Law or the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University.
Applicants must submit their current résumé or curriculum vitae along with their responses to the legal essay prompt and values statement by the due date.
Submission Due Date:
Friday, January 23, 2026
Jonny Gammage Scholarship Application Guidelines
Applicants must email all application materials as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF for review to info@prjs.org.
Application materials include:
- Current résumé or curriculum vitae
- Response to the Legal Essay Prompt
- Values Statement
The Legal Essay Prompt response will be evaluated by two professional judges in who serve or have served in the Pittsburgh community. The Values Statement will be evaluated by reviewed by members of the PRJS Planning Committee.
Click the button below to view and download a copy of the Application Guidelines and Values Statement Evaluation Rubric.
Legal Essay Prompt
Community Building and Democratic Participation
Meaningful democratic participation depends on a robust and inclusive civic space. Legal structures, however, have marginalized communities of color through tactics such as voter suppression, exclusionary zoning laws, and inequitable school funding formulas, which undermine community cohesion and political power.
In 5 to 7 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times News Roman or Arial font), address both parts of the prompt below:
First, critically evaluate the role of community-based organizing and advocacy in counteracting these legally sanctioned barriers to racial equity and democratic participation.
Second, describe and provide a rationale for a legal strategy that lawyers and policymakers can use to support and empower grassroots community building, ensuring that the law serves as a tool for strengthening, rather than suppressing, multiracial and multiethnic coalitions.
Values Statement
Value Alignment with PRJS and the Black & White Reunion
The Annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit is an initiative of the Black & White Reunion whose mission is stated below. This mission encompasses the values held by our Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit planning committee members and describes our motivation to work toward justice for the people of Pittsburgh and beyond.
The primary mission of the Black & White Reunion is to bring together organizations and individuals to do the collective work to dismantle the systems of oppression that impact the basic needs of Black and Brown people worldwide and, at the same time, harm everyone regardless of social identity or socioeconomic status.
Thus, the work of the Black & White Reunion involves bringing diverse communities together to work to develop alliances for justice and to eliminate human oppression by promoting cooperation and collaboration on projects that impact nine areas of human activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, gender, and war.
To achieve progress in these areas, the Black & White Reunion works with individuals, groups, organizations, neighborhoods, communities, local, and state governments, as well as corporations, local and regional unions, coalitions, churches, temples, and mosques.
The Black & White Reunion’s existing programs, including the Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit as its hallmark, are models of diversity and shared power.
In 2 to 3 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times News Roman or Arial font), address the following prompt:
How have your personal values and experience—direct or indirect—with systemic injustice in a specific issue in law, legal scholarship, or public policy influenced your desire to pursue an academic or professional career in any of those fields? Explain how your future academic or professional work will address the issue that you will discuss.
Values Statement Evaluation Rubric
Objective of evaluation. To assess how well each applicant’s personal values and history align with the values present in the Black & White Reunion’s mission. Those values are: justice (restorative, reparative, and anti-oppression), inclusivity (collectivism), collaboration (coalition building), equity (shared power), and social progress.
Rating scale and criteria. The 5 values listed above can be the criteria that PRJS committee members use to evaluate each response. A 6th criterion (“Heart of hearts”) allows for all raters to provide a holistic, subjective rating of the applicant that reflects an evaluation of a quality not reflected in the other 5 criteria.
Justice / Restorative, Reparative, and Anti-Oppression
Description: The response identifies a specific social justice issue that the applicant has experienced directly or indirectly and explains how their future academic or professional work in law, legal scholarship, or public policy will contribute to restorative or reparative justice.
Inclusivity / Collectivism
Description: The response articulates the applicant’s belief in the connectedness of social justice issues and the value of addressing social injustice regardless of the identities of those affected.
Collaboration / Coalition Building
Description: The response describes any role that the applicant has had in working cooperatively within an organization and in concert with multiple organizations to address a social justice issue.
Equity / Shared Power
Description: The response identifies a specific social justice issue that they have experienced directly or indirectly and clearly explains how their future academic or professional work in law, legal scholarship, or public policy will contribute to restorative or reparative justice.
Progress
Description: The response demonstrates a history of commitment that began before entering law school to their work addressing the social justice issue they discussed.
Heart of Hearts
Description: This is a subjective, holistic assessment of how well the applicant’s response aligns with the mission and values of the Black & White Reunion and the Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit in ways that are not reflected in the other criteria.