Interview with Rosolu John Bankole Thompson, March 21, 2014

Project: African Immigrants in the Bluegrass Oral History Project

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Interview Summary

Judge Bankole Thompson (Sierra Leone) speaks about his childhood in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the influence of a market woman grandmother, the opportunity to attend a top secondary school on scholarship, as well as Fourah Bay College and Cambridge University. A judge in Sierra Leone, he first traveled to the U.S. on a study tour at the invitation of the U.S. Ambassador. Then he was offered a position at Kent State University and the University of Akron. After that he moved to Eastern Kentucky University. He was the first African to chair comparative constitutional law at the University of Akron and the first African Dean of Graduate Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He describes his key role as a member of the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone in the indictment of Charles Taylor while still President of Liberia and also describes the structure and function of the court. He talks about his wife and children, and travel and Sierra Leone. Judge Thompson is presently a member of the West African Commission on Drug Trafficking and Other Transnational Crimes, sponsored by the Kofi Annan Foundation and a Judge of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Interview Accession

2014oh074_aitb010

Interviewee Name

Rosolu John Bankole Thompson

Interviewer Name

Jack Wilson

Interview Date

2014-03-21

Interview LC Subject

Africa Liberia United Nations

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Thompson, Rosolu John Bankole Interview by Jack Wilson. 21 Mar. 2014. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Thompson, R.J. (2014, March 21). Interview by J. Wilson. African Immigrants in the Bluegrass Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Thompson, Rosolu John Bankole, interview by Jack Wilson. March 21, 2014, African Immigrants in the Bluegrass Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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