The annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee is more than a commemoration of “Bloody Sunday” and the movement for voting rights 50 years ago. Its activities reflect the on-going nature of the Freedom Movement.
A host of past and present-day civil rights leaders and policymakers are also hosting or taking part in commemorative events and workshops on the Freedom Movement, from voting rights 50 years ago to police brutality, among modern day civil rights challenges including Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter.
They are carrying the torch for a new generation discuss strategies to fight new versions of the same old issues of discrimination and equality under the law.
SATURDAY, MARCH 7
SERIES OF POWERFUL WORKSHOPS ON THE STATUS OF CIVIL & HUMAN RIGHTS 50 YEARS LATER
WORKSHOPS–BLOCK ONE
9:00 am – 10:30 am, Wallace Community College, 3000 Earl Goodwin Parkway
- Medicaid Expansion Matters: The Lives of 300,000 Alabamians Depend On It; Sophia Bracey Harris, Executive Director, Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama; Joe Keffer, retired Labor and Community Organizer, Service Employees International Union; Tammy Thomas, Field Organizer, Center for Community Change
- Still Separate, Still Unequal: Combating Racial Segregation Under the Fair Housing Act and Other Civil Rights Laws; Sara Pratt, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Programs and Enforcement, HUD; Faith Cooper, Director, Central Alabama Fair Housing Center; Tafeni English, Fair Housing Specialist, Central Alabama Fair Housing Center
- Federal Sentencing and Over Incarceration: Thirty Years of Failed Policy and What We Can DoTo Fix It Now; Christine Freeman, Executive Director, Middle District of Alabama Federal Defender Program; Kevin Butler, Federal Public Defender; Northern District of Alabama; Carlos Williams, Executive Director, Southern District of Alabama Federal Defenders Organization
- A Society That Works for All: Not Just the Corporations and the Wealthy; Ying Gee, Assistant Director for Civil & Human Rights International Union, United Auto Workers; Representative, SEIU, Rise Up for $15 Campaign; Representative, Amalgamated Transit Union
·The Role of Education in the Liberation of a People 50 Years Later, Tony Browder, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, Dr. Robert White, Dr. Adelaide Sanford
SERIES OF POWERFUL WORKSHOPS ON THE STATUS OF CIVIL & HUMAN RIGHTS 50 YEARS LATER
WORKSHOPS–BLOCK TWO
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Dallas County Courthouse, 105 Lauderdale Street OR Dallas County Court House Annex, 102 Church Street
- From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative, Courthouse, 2nd Floor Courtroom
- Fighting for Economic Justice in the Black Belt; Lawrence Gardella, Director for Advocacy, Legal Services Alabama; Geraldine V. Turner-Wofford, Managing Attorney, Selma Office, Legal Services Alabama; Terrika Shaw, Staff Attorney, Legal Services Alabama; Annex, Commissioner’s Courtroom
- Alabama Unafraid: Latino Immigrant Activism Post-House Bill 56; Dr. Carlos Aleman, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Latin American Scholars Study Program, Stamford University, Annex, Courtroom Two
- Change Is Gonna Come: Advancing an Environmental & Climate Justice Agenda in the South, Jacqueline Patterson, NAACP Climate Change Program, Richard Moore, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform; Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network; Harold Mitchell, Regensis; Cynthia Peurifoy, Environmental Justice Division, Region IV, Annex, Courtroom One
4:30 pm—5:00 pm The Charge: Fighting for the Future and the Soul of the Nation, Rev. William Barber, Moral Monday Movement, Courthouse, 2nd Floor
INDEPENDENT WORKSHOPS & PANELS—
Times and Locations As Indicated Below
9:00 am—11:00 am Voting Rights & Elected Officials of Color from 1965 to 2015, and Beyond, Joint Center for Political Economic Affairs, Black Belt African American Genealogical & Historical Society, Selma Public Library, 1103 Selma Ave.
2:00 pm, approximately • Voting Rights Workshop—Keeping America’s Promise: Advancing Democracy, AND
Voting Rights Act @ 50 Unity Reception NAACP Legal Defense Fund Lawyers and Special Guests, Brown Chapel, 410 Martin Luther King Jr. St. (immediately following President Barack Obama’s Address)
See Website · State of the Black Race Post-Obama, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law,
10:00 am– 12:00 noon • The Drug War: Its Role in Mass Incarceration & Disenfranchisement of African Americans, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, TOPS, Asha Bandele/DPA, Dorsey Nunn, Daryl Atkinson, First Baptist Church, 709 Martin Luther King St, Selma
12 noon – 2:00 pm • Southern People’s Initiative—Two Year Action Plan, Stephanie Guilloud & Emery Wright, Pastor, Project South, Kenneth Glasgow, TOPS, First Baptist Church, 709 Martin Luther King St.
5:00 pm-8:00 pm AND Welcome Reception & Dinner Pastor David Perry, New Selmont churuch, 215 Selmont Avenue.
2:00 pm—4:30 pm LIVING LEGENDS SHARE THEIR WISDOM ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY: Panelists: Claudette Colvin, Dorothy Cotton, Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Worth Long, Robert “Bob” Moses, Diane Nash, Dr. C.T. Vivian, Harry Belafonte, Selma Convention Center, 411 Washington St.
See the updated schedule HERE.
