Issues of policing and incarceration – both locally and nationally – will be in sharp focus as the thirty-sixth annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series (MTW) invites a wide-ranging discussion of the historical developments that have brought us to events in Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago, and so many other American towns. The annual Black History Month conference will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2016, 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. at The Paul Robeson Campus Center on the campus of Rutgers University-Newark,350 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Following the conference, MTW attendees are invited to a reception at the Newark Museum that will feature live musical entertainment by The Bradford Hayes Trio.
All events are free and open to the public.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The echoing throughout history of enslaving another continues as a common space within African American communities particularly. We endure barriers within our daily lives that hinder and restrict enjoying living. It is so easy to dismiss this common theme with blame and fault, especially in light of every immigrant group traveling to this United States of American arriving with some transitional hardships; however, soon enjoy social and economic freedoms that continue to escape those ancestral multi-generations of Black people that were kidnapped, stolen in the night from African to clear and build this country called America… And, yet, the white powers that be and many that enjoy white privilege feel in no part responsible for acknowledging personal advantages or wealth. In ignorance blaming the victims for conditions places upon them to defend. This country despite centuries of denial – OWN Black people “economic” back pay, for centuries of abuse and for those abuses that are still experienced in our communities under different social systems protected by laws that disenfranchise people of color… It is time to pay up America, the time is now…