A black-and-white photograph of a man wearing a turtleneck and coat. Text in pastels and all lowercase. A black-and-white photograph of a man wearing a turtleneck and coat. Text in pastels and all lowercase.

Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Pages: 296
Illustrations: 28 b&w halftones

Civil Rights
 Memoir & Biography
 African American Studies
 ebook
 hardcover
 Forthcoming
 Books
 Open Access Ebook

Always Looking Forward

A Life in Law, Learning, and Liberation

James Edward Bowers

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Hardcover
978-1-64336-699-9
 Published: Nov 5 2026

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978-1-64336-702-6
 Published: Nov 5 2026

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OA Ebook
978-1-64336-702-6
 Published: Nov 5 2026

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The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law and University of South Carolina Libraries

A story of leadership, lineage, and the transformational power of education

In his historically grounded memoir, Always Looking Forward, James Edward Bowers adds an essential voice to the story of how Black South Carolinians used education as a vehicle for freedom and opportunity. Highlighting the contributions to this endeavor from his ancestors, many of whom had found a way to learn to read and write under the oppressive conditions of enslavement, Bowers offers objective lessons in the power of education.

Showing how their determination shaped his own career, Bowers reflects on his great-grandfather, who founded a school for the children of formerly enslaved people, his grandfather, who taught at two historically Black colleges, and his mother, who was fired as a public school teacher for protesting the inequality of Black education after the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Bowers tells his story of rising up from a childhood spent in segregated Orangeburg, South Carolina, to attending Fisk University, to enrolling at a newly desegregated USC and Harvard Law School, to then becoming the first full-time African American faculty member at the University of South Carolina School of Law, forging a path to leadership in government, corporate service, and higher education.



James Edward Bowers is a Harvard-trained attorney and educator whose life and work reflect a lifelong commitment to educational access, public service, and mentoring future generations. He is celebrated for his legacy at the University of South Carolina through an endowed professorship and lectureship named in his honor. Bowers resides in Connecticut.

"Distinguished lawyer James Edward Bowers powerfully details his remarkable journey through pivotal civil rights protests, rigorous education, and decades as a lawyer and law professor. A descendant of enslaved people and enslavers, as well as teachers and clergy, Bowers vividly shares his love of learning, talent for friendship, wisdom, and dedication to advancing justice while honoring those who led the way."—Martha Minow, Harvard University, author of Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve the Freedom of Speech

"Bowers' story is one long begging to be told. He weaves his personal story of life, love, and the law into a much larger American story of education, segregation, justice, and the spaces it makes for each of us—even within the constraints of history—to chart a path. His story is one of remarkable grace and an unflinching willingness to always do it his own way."—Derek Black, University of South Carolina, author of Dangerous Learning: The South's Long War on Black Literacy

"James Edward Bowers shares his unique and very personal and unapologetic approach to the pursuit, substantially realized, of the American ideal."—Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge, retired from Maryland Court of Appeals

"Always Looking Forward, the autobiography of pathbreaking Black lawyer James Bowers, is a well-written account of the power of family, community, and struggle, in defiance of the brutality of slavery and Jim Crow, to create a better world through education. It belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who wants to understand America's transformation from slavery to freedom."—Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality