Derrick Albert Bell Jr. (1930-2011) was a pioneering American lawyer, legal scholar, professor, and civil rights activist renowned for his foundational contributions to Critical Race Theory. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to working-class parents, Bell grew up during the era of Jim Crow segregation, which profoundly shaped his commitment to racial justice. After serving in the U.S. Air Force as a military officer from 1953 to 1955, he pursued higher education, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Duquesne University in 1959 and a Juris Doctor from Western Reserve University School of Law (now Case Western Reserve University) in 1962. Bell's early career included a stint at the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division from 1962 to 1964, followed by his role as executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Western Regional Office in Los Angeles from 1964 to 1966, where he oversaw more than 300 school desegregation cases, particularly in Mississippi. He later returned to the NAACP LDF in New York from 1968 to 1971 before entering academia. Bell's academic career was marked by trailblazing achievements and activism. He became the first African American tenured professor at Harvard Law School in 1980, where he taught constitutional law and civil rights until 1992. During his tenure, he mentored prominent figures such as Lani Guinier and advanced innovative teaching methods, including staging dramatic protests to highlight racial issues. In 1990, Bell controversially took an unpaid leave from Harvard to protest the denial of tenure to his colleague Regina Austin and to spotlight the lack of African American women on the faculty; he never returned and resigned in 1992. He subsequently taught at the University of Oregon School of Law and then at New York University School of Law from 1992 until his retirement. Bell authored influential books such as 'Race, Racism and American Law' (1973) and 'Faces at the Bottom of the Well' (1992), which explored permanent racial subordination and challenged traditional civil rights narratives. His work laid the groundwork for Critical Race Theory, emphasizing that racism is embedded in legal institutions. Throughout his life, Bell remained a vocal political activist, criticizing colorblind constitutionalism and advocating for interest convergence in racial progress. He faced professional repercussions for his bold stances but earned widespread acclaim for his intellectual courage. Bell passed away on October 5, 2011, in New York City from carcinoid cancer, leaving a legacy as a mentor to generations of scholars and a key figure in mapping networks of racial influence in American law and society.