On January 14, 2010, the NYC Commission on Human Rights and NYC Media, in collaboration with the Apollo Theater Education Program, held a special preview screening of Fighting For Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, followed by a panel discussion. The event, held at the Apollo Theater, celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Fighting For Justice profiles 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 film and panelists were introduced by: Patricia L. Gatling, Commissioner and Chair of the NYC Commission on Human Rights; Katherine Oliver, President and General Manager of NYC Media; and Jonelle Procope, President and CEO of the Apollo Theater Foundation. Ms. Procope does not appear on the online version of the panel discussion.

Keith Brown, Senior Vice President of News and Public Affairs for BET Networks moderated the panel discussion. Panelists included:

Esther Cooper Jackson – Civil Rights activist, managing editor and one of the founders of the 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 LBJ 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.

Watch the panel discussion:
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Fighting for Justice panelists (left to right) Dr. Clarence Taylor, Clifford L. Alexander, Jr., Esther Cooper Jackson, Dr. Martha Biondi, and Shola Lynch.

Panel discussion moderator, Keith Brown.