Past & Present Famlies United: Justice & Accountability for Racist Killings

Saturday, May 30, 2015
Past & Present Families United:
Justice & Accountability for Racist Killings
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse University College of Law Orientation Program
Location: National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Museum & Lecture Halls) 100 Ivan Allen Junior Boulevard Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30313 (Parking at Coca Cola or Georgia Aquarium Parking)
The orientation program is designed to be an informative, collaborative, and constructive event in which we will hear the voices of family members of victims of racially-motivated violence and their continuing quest for justice; members of the media who investigate these cases and inform the public about the continuing need for awareness; and advocates and activists who work with family members and communities to obtain justice. The roundtable discussion in the afternoon will involve strategic discussion for concrete ideas for the pursuit of justice and accountability and ways in which CCJI law student interns can advance these causes in collaboration with families, communities, and social justice organizations and governmental entities.
9:00 a.m. Welcome & Introduction to the Work of the Cold Case Justice  Initiative
9:15 a.m. Families Fighting for Justice
– 10:15 a.m.
Joyce Dorsey and Jessica Malcolm (Moore’s Ford Bridge Massacre Families)
  Former Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks
Janice Cameron and Nedra Walker (Five Atlanta Fishermen Killed in Pensacola, Florida)
Cheryl McCollum, Director, Cold Case Investigative Research Institute
CCJI Co-Directors, Introduction of Emmett Till Legislation
10:20 a.m. Role of the Media
– 11:15 a.m.
  Stanley Nelson, Concordia Sentinel, Ferriday, Louisiana
Hank Klibanoff, Emory University, The Civil Rights Cold Case Project
Angela Robinson, President of A.R.C. Media, LLC and Host and Executive Producer of In Contact (produced by American Association of Black Journalists on PBS station WPBA)
Derrick Boazman, Radio Host WAOK 1380 Atlanta Program, “Too Much Truth”
11:25 a.m. Families United
– 12:30 p.m.
Denise Jackson Ford and Wharlest Jackson, Jr. (Wharlest Jackson, Sr., Natchez, Miss.)
 Shelton Chappell (Johnnie Mae Chappell, Jacksonville, Fla.)
 Martinez Sutton (Rekia Boyd, Chicago, Illinois)
12:30 p.m.
– 1:30 p.m. Lunch

1:45 p.m. Round Table Discussion and Strategic Decision Making Session
– 4:00 p.m.
 Aurielle Marie, It’s Bigger Than You, Atlanta
 Mawuli Davis, Civil Rights Attorney
 Rev. Dr. Francys Johnson, Georgia NAACP
Charles Steele, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Deborah Watts, Emmett Till Family (Emmett Till Legacy Foundation )
Joe Beasley, Rainbow Push
CCJI Co-Directors
Acknowledgements: The Cold Case Justice Initiative thanks all of the participants in the 2015 Summer Internship Orientation program. We also thank Deborah Richardson and the Staff of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Kevin Moran, People’s Agenda, Angela Robinson, ARC Media (SU ’78), and Scott McDowell, Syracuse University Regional Communications. We are especially grateful for the contribution from an anonymous donor from the Atlanta area, whose generosity made the orientation program and the summer internships possible.