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The Honorable Robert Wilkins of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the speaker for the 7th Annual Birch Bayh Lecture at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The event took place on September 27 at Inlow Hall.

Judge Wilkins' topic for the lecture was "Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100-Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture." Judge Wilkins played a key role in the establishment of the museum, serving as the Chairman of the Site and Building Committee of the Presidential Commission whose work led to the congressional authorization of the museum and the selection of its location.

Judge Wilkins was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 15, 2014. A native of Muncie Indiana, he obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Following law school, Judge Wilkins served as a law clerk to the Honorable Earl B. Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. In 1990, he joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he served first as a staff attorney in the trial and appellate divisions and later for several years as Special Litigation Chief. In 2002, he joined the law firm of Venable LLP as a partner, handling white-collar defense, intellectual property and complex civil litigation matters. During his tenure with the Public Defender Service and in private practice, Judge Wilkins served as the lead plaintiff in Wilkins, et al. v. State of Maryland, a landmark civil rights lawsuit that inspired nationwide legislative and executive reform of police stop-and-search practices and the collection of data regarding those practices.

The Birch Bayh Lecture was established at IU McKinney in honor of former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh. The series, made possible through the generous contributions of the Simon Property Group, where Senator Bayh served on the board for 17 years, and the friends of Birch Bayh, focuses on issues of importance to Senator Bayh throughout his long and distinguished career in government.

In the photo from left are Robert H. McKinney, Judge Robert Wilkins, Dean Andrew R. Klein, and Chris Bayh.