Gray family attorney Billy Murphy and Rev. Heber Brown III, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church and member of Baltimore United for Change speak with Amy Goodman.
The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration, with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails. Mass incarceration and overcriminalization have particularly affected communities of color, which make up more than 60 percent of the population behind bars. And nationally, 70 million and 100 million—or one in three Americans—now have a criminal record, which can serve as a barrier to many of the basic building blocks of economic security and mobility, such as employment and housing. These trends have become major drivers of poverty; if not for mass incarceration and the criminal records that can haunt people for decades thereafter, our nation’s poverty rate would have dropped by one-fifth between 1980 and 2004. Recent events in cities across the nation have highlighted the lack of opportunity, inequities, and challenges confronting many of our communities, raised serious questions about police practices, and helped fuel the need for comprehensive criminal justice reform.
Please join the Center for American Progress and PICO National Network for a discussion of how we can begin to reverse the trend of overcriminalization of people of color and address its lasting consequences, including reforming policing practices and removing barriers to opportunity for people with criminal records.
Welcoming remarks:
Winnie Stachelberg, Executive Vice President for External Affairs, Center for American ProgressOpening remarks:
Pastor Michael McBride, Director of Urban Strategies and LIVE FREE Campaign, PICO National NetworkFeatured presenter:
Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of History, University of Michigan
Featured panelists:
Reverend Heber Brown III, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, North Baltimore
Judith M. Conti, Federal Advocacy Coordinator, National Employment Law Project
Ronald L. Davis, Director, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice
Pastor Darren A. Ferguson, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Arverne (Far Rockaway), NY
Alicia Garza, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter
Moderated by:
Todd A. Cox, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Coffee will be served at 9:00 a.m.
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
In April, Baltimore police killed an unarmed Black man named Freddie Gray. His death kicked off weeks of protests and the latest round of the larger Black Lives Matter movement that has exploded across the United States against racism and police brutality. Today our host Michael Fox speaks with Reverend Heber Brown III, the Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in North Baltimore about the Baltimore uprising, Black Lives Matter, and where this moment of organizing and action can go. teleSUR
Join us for Justice Sunday, April 26th @ 3 PM at Metropolitan UMC, 1121 W. Lanvale St., Baltimore, MD 21217
For resources and more information log onto KineticsLive.com
As demonstrations around the murder of #FreddieGray unfold; Baltimore social justice activists share some thoughts.
