It started with a Facebook post.

University of Denver law professor Catherine Smith noted several recent appointments of minority women to deanships and decided last week to make a list of all the Black women running law schools. By the time she was finished, there were 27 names on her directory. (She later bumped that up to 28 when Zelda Harris was appointed the incoming interim dean of Loyola University Chicago School of Law.)

Smith's Facebook post reverberated through the digital halls of legal education and confirmed what anyone who has been paying attention already knew: Black women are emerging as a major force in law schools and stepping into leadership roles in unprecedented numbers.