University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Cara McClellan is set to receive an award in honor of her civil rights work this weekend.
McClellan, the director of the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, was nominated for The Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia’s 2026 Presidential Award of Courage. The organization — which has served Philadelphia’s Black legal community for 76 years — will honor McClellan at its annual gala on May 2.
“I am honored that Barrister’s President Samantha Fitzpatrick has chosen to recognize my work as Director of ARC Justice Clinic,” McClellan wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The Barristers’ Association described McClellan as a “distinguished civil rights attorney, scholar, and educator” in its award announcement. The statement pointed to her work at the justice clinic and contributions to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund.
“McClellan leads impactful civil rights litigation and prepares the next generation of advocates to challenge systemic inequities,” the organization wrote.
McClellan joined Penn’s faculty in 2022 and founded the ARC Civil Justice Clinic in February 2023.
“The clinic provides pro bono representation to Philadelphia residents,” McClellan wrote to the DP. “Our advocacy is done in collaboration with grassroots organizations and individuals on the frontline of the fight for racial justice.”
Penn students can become involved with the clinic’s work. Participants gain “hands-on experience working in civil rights litigation and policy advocacy in the Philadelphia region using a movement lawyering approach,” according to its webpage.
“Every day I am inspired by our clients’ perseverance and the deep commitment of our students to working for social justice,” McClellan added.
In January 2026, McClellan — representing the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition — spoke before a federal court on the dismantling of exhibits about slavery at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park.
She wrote to the DP that her team filed an amicus brief on April 27 in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals “in defense of the President's House exhibit.”
Despite the memorial’s “critical importance,” several employees “dismantled and removed all educational and interpretive panels” at the site on Jan. 22 — “pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14253,” according to the brief.
It argued that the removal action “was arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act.
In May 2024, the Philadelphia City Council introduced McClellan as one of the nine members on its Philadelphia Reparations Task Force.
The task force aims to “stud[y] and develop … reparations proposals and programs for Black Philadelphians whose ancestors endured chattel slavery and Jim Crow in the United States,” according to the city council’s website.
Cara McClellan, the criminal and legal justice system coordinator on the task force, explained that the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America was a large driving force behind the initiative.
At the time, McClellan described her role on the task force as being a “coordinator or connector of different people who really know a lot about the criminal and legal justice system in Philadelphia to come together to do this research and to come up with recommendations” in an interview with the DP.
She will be presented with the award at the Association’s Annual Awards & Scholarship Gala, which will be held at the Grand Belle at the Bellevue in Center City.
