Capital Press Club hosts ‘Mayday in America’ Forum on Race
The Capital Press Club (CPC) has announced a solutions-oriented panel discussion and town hall-style meeting May 1st,  that will focus on racial division in 21st Century America.
The panel, themed “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday in America! – A Nation Divided Against Itself…” is in conjunction with the CPC’s 70th anniversary celebrations. It will be held Thursday, May 1, from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Washington, D.C.-based African-American Civil War Museum, 1925 Vermont Avenue NW.
The panel will include Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, pastor of the Baltimore-based Empowerment Temple and founder of the Empowerment Movement, which has been actively involved in the campaign against “stand your ground” and other volatile issues. Also, Shanta Driver, national chair of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), who argued the recent Schuette affirmative action case before the U. S. Supreme Court. Panelists will also include Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-chair of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, who was a member of the wrongly imprisoned Wilmington 10, recently pardoned by a North Carolina judge. Panelists will also include political scientist and radio talk show host Wilmer Leon and Nicole Austin-Hillery, director-counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice.
The discussion and town hall will be moderated by economist and commentator Dr. Julianne Malveaux, former president of the Bennett College for Women. The audience will include civil rights, social justice leaders, community residents, high school and college students.
Doors will open at 6 pm. Forum to begin at 6:30 with a reception to follow. For more information, please call 202-291-9310 or email President@CapitalPressClub.org.
“The deafening silence that has continued on some of the greatest racial atrocities facing America has set off a level of urgency that cannot be ignored,” said CPC President Hazel Trice Edney. “Economic recovery, quality education and criminal justice remains elusive in much of our communities; not to mention the unfinished criminal justice agenda on the issue of Trayvon Martin and other African-American children. It’s time to sound the alarm.”
The Capital Press Club, www.capitalpressclub.org, was founded in 1944 as an African-American alternative to the National Press Club, which did not accept Blacks and women.
