“Confronting Jim Crow in New Jersey — Dr. King’s Activism and His Legacy” is the topic of a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Sankofa Collaborative via Zoom on Wednesday, January 15, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The event is free to attend. Visit sankofacollaborative.org/upcoming-programs for access to the Zoom link.
Sankofa was established in 2017 through a collaboration among five New Jersey organizations — 1804 Consultants, Grounds For Sculpture, The New Jersey Historical Society, Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, and the William Trent House Museum — to help individuals in schools, museums, and libraries present, interpret, and discuss African American history.
This live virtual panel will discuss Dr. King’s experiences confronting racial discrimination and segregation in New Jersey from his first sit-in in Maple Shade as a seminary student to his speeches in Newark as he began the Poor People’s Campaign. Invited panelists will summarize the impact of Dr. King’s many trips to New Jersey, share firsthand experiences from his 1968 visit just prior to his assassination in Memphis, and highlight how his legacy has continued in the State. The program will be recorded and made available on the Sankofa Collaborative website.
Panelists include:
Linda Caldwell Epps is the president and CEO of 1804 Consultants, which she founded to help cultural organizations and educators plan and assess their programming. She has previously worked for the New Jersey Historical Society, New Jersey Network Television and Radio, and Bloomfield College, among others. She holds a PhD from Drew University.
Christopher Fisher is an associate professor of history and the interim dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at The College of New Jersey. He has taught courses on Civil Rights, African American history, and race relations, and he holds a PhD in U.S. history and diplomacy from Rutgers University.
Jean-Pierre Brutus is a senior counsel in the Economic Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a Newark-based nonprofit focused on racial and social justice advocacy. His work there centers on reparations advocacy. He earned a law degree and a PhD in African American studies from Northwestern University.
Hettie Williams is an associate professor of African American history at Monmouth University and is the current president of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). Her published books include “Bury My Heart in a Free Land: Black Women Intellectuals in Modern U.S. History” and “Race and the Obama Phenomenon: The Vision of a More Perfect Multiracial Union.” She holds a PhD from Drew University.
Larry Hamm established the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark in 1982 and has spent more than four decades on social, racial, and economic justice initiatives.
Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer is the pastor of Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton, and the founder of Salvation and Social Justice, a Trenton-based nonprofit with a faith-based approach to abolishing structural racism.
