In this episode, Deidré A. Keller, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law, discusses her current project, "Will I Be the Next Hashtag?: 'Black Death Spectacle' or Catalyst for Change?" Keller observes that Emmett Till's mother Mamie Till intentionally used the image of his mangled body to support the civil rights movement, by to forcing the public to confront the brutality of the mob that lynched him. But more recently, when Jordan Edwards was murdered by a police officer, his family asked for people to respect their privacy and not "hashtag" Edwards. In addition, some people protested when the artist Dana Schutz used the iconic image of Emmett Till as the basis for a painting. Keller asks whether privacy, publicity, and related legal rights can and should enable families and others to prevent the public from turning murdered African-Americans into symbols. Keller's work is available on SSRN here.

Keywords: privacy, right of publicity, intellectual property

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