23rd Annual Birthday Tribute to
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King Says “NO!” To The New Jim Crow
2:00 pm, Sunday, January 20, 2013
Woodstock Community Center, Rock City Road
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Free
Come join us for an afternoon of reflection, celebration, education and song to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As Dr. King said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” Many were a part of the struggle against Jim Crow embodied in the Civil Rights Movement to which Dr. King dedicated his life. Today there is a call to educate and mobilize people against the New Jim Crow. As Michelle Alexander points out in her new, best selling book, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, we now have a new form of racial caste system. Alexander shows how the mass incarceration of African American young men, brought about by the War on Drugs, has created a permanent, new caste system. She notes, “Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group largely defined by race.”
Theo Harris, our keynote speaker, is a criminal justice consultant, author and singer. Theo will be teaching us about the New Jim Crow and linking it to Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. His newly published autobiography Blessed andHighly Favored, Memoirs of a Multiple Felon, has received much acclaim. Theo holds a BA from Syracuse University, and a Master of Professional Studies from NY Theological Seminary, all of which were earned while he was incarcerated. Known for his singing inside and outside prison, he and his wife Phyllis, The Anointed Two, will also be performing.
Speaking will be Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal; Ismail Shabazz, Community Activist; Maggie Williams, Move to Amend; and the Town Supervisor of Woodstock Jeremy Wilber. Performing will be Dennis Washington, Director of the Ulster County Community Choir, singing Negro Spirituals; Debra Burger, Freedom Songs; and Theo and Phyllis Harris, The Anointed Two.
Sponsored by Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee, Haitian People's Support Project and Town of Woodstock