Commission, NYC Media, and the Apollo Theater Education Program host Fighting For Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement.
The NYC Commission on Human Rights and NYC Media, in collaboration with the Apollo Theater Education Program, presented Fighting For Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, on January 14, 2010. The preview screening and panel discussion was held at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem. The event celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and included a special performance by the C3 Youth Choir from the Christian Cultural Center (Rev. A. R. Bernard, Pastor). The event also marked the Commission’s fourth in a series of Civil Rights Public Lectures. The film, Fighting for Justice, profiled two New Yorkers, Esther Cooper Jackson and Clifford Alexander, whose contributions helped pave the way toward progress for equal justice for African-Americans, and whose stories begin to tell about New York City's formative place in the national Civil Rights movement. The event included opening remarks from: NYC Human Rights Commissioner and Chair Patricia L. Gatling, who announced the Commission's new online Civil Rights Museum; NYC Media Acting President Katherine Oliver; and Apollo Theater Foundation President Jonelle Procope. Commissioner Gatling also recognized the work of Elsie Richardson, who is featured in a short film on the Commission’s online Museum. The evening's panelists included: Keith Brown, Moderator - Senior Vice President of News and Public Affairs, BET Networks. Esther Cooper Jackson - Civil Rights activist, managing editor and one of the founders of the influential political and cultural quarterly Freedomways; headed the Southern Negro Youth Congress; subject of Fighting for Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement. Clifford L. Alexander, Jr. - President of Alexander and Associates, attorney, businessman, and former public servant under four US Presidents; counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson during passage of Civil Rights legislation; subject of Fighting for Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Clarence Taylor - Professor of History, Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY and Professor of the Black and Hispanic Studies Department at Baruch; author: The Black Churches of Brooklyn, Knocking At Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools, and Black Religious Intellectuals: The Fight for Equality from Jim Crow to the 21st Century. Dr. Martha Biondi - Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, Northwestern University; author: To Stand and Fight: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City. Shola Lynch - Filmmaker; director and producer of Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed; producer: Lessons from Little Rock: A National Report Card, American Gangster (2 episodes), Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 US Hockey Team; co-producer: Matters of Race The Commission's new online Civil Rights Museum can be accessed through www.nyc.gov/cchr or www.nyc.gov/fightingforjustice.
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