The Commission's Newsletter 
2008 Edition
Page 3

The Commission is laying the groundwork for a new museum dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of the NYC Civil Rights Movement. The Commission has begun this journey with its Oral History Film Documentation Project to preserve the stories of notable individuals who steadily struggled for equality in the midst of tempestuous racial climates during the post-World War II period and whose major contributions paved the way for progress in the arts and entertainment, education, government, the public sector and business. The significance of their groundbreaking strides lies in the impact they’ve had upon NYC and the rest of the nation.

Beginning in late spring, Commission staff filmed interviews with: painted story quilt artist, professor and author Faith Ringgold; poet, author, and professor Sonia Sanchez; Secretary of the Army, attorney, businessman, presidential adviser and counsel, and former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Clifford L. Alexander, Jr.; civil rights activist, and cofounder and managing editor of Freedom Ways, a political and cultural quarterly magazine, Esther Cooper- Jackson; economist who worked in philanthropy, foreign international development and diplomacy, university administrator and professor, corporate executive, and public servant Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.; professor and former civil rights attorney who heads an at-risk youth organization he founded, Rev. C. Vernon Mason.