W. Haywood Burns

W. Haywood Burns (June 15, 1940 - April 2, 1996) was the second dean of the City University of New York Law School (he served from 1987 until 1994) and a Civil Rights Movement leader.

Burns was born on June 15, 1940, in Peekskill, New York. At age 15 he desegregated the pools in his hometown.

He graduated from Harvard College and from Yale University Law School in 1966. After law school he worked for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, clerked for Constance Baker Motley and then became an assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc.

Burns served as general counsel to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign and was one of the founders of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He represented Angela Davis and prisoners after the Attica prison uprising.

He was killed in a car crash in Cape Town, South Africa.

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