PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Don Rojas
Email: donjbrojas@gmail.com; tel: 410-844-1031
Town Hall Meeting and Conference on Violence and Fratricide in Black Communities
Theme: “Our Brothers and Sisters Keepers”
The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) in conjunction with the Philadelphia Region Justice Collaborative (PRJC) will convene a Town Hall meeting followed by a mini conference to address the plague of violence and fratricide in African-American communities in Philadelphia and other major cities across the country. Both events will take place at Philadelphia’s historic Church of the Advocate, 1801 West Diamond Street, on November 20th and 21st.
Special guests at the Town Hall Meeting include Dr. Marc Lamont Hill of CNN and the Huffington Post, Nkechi Taifa, Esq., senior policy analyst at the Open Society Foundations and Jasiri X, popular Hip Hop activist from Pittsburgh.
In addition, the Town Hall meeting will hear from panelists Richard Ross, 1st Deputy Police Commissioner in Philadelphia; Dr. Cleora Levetter, education and motivational consultant; Dr. Umar Johnson, child psychologist and Michael Coard, Esq. Moderating the panelis Nick Talliafero, radio talk show host at WURD Radio.
The mini-conference on Nov. 21st will explore solutions to the crisis of violence and fratricide and will feature presentations by Ronald Hampton, Shondell Revell, Robert Brown, James Dickerson, Dr. Keigh Collins, Kiana Edwards, Charles Walker, Yusef Jackson, Michael Tambon, Thomas Singleton and Abeena Africa.
“This town hall meeting and mini-conference comes at a critical moment when violence and fratricide have reached epidemic proportions in the African-American communities of Philadelphia and other major cities,” said Dr. Ron Daniels, President of IBW. “Much of this violence is related to the failed, and utterly irrational, “War on Drugs” which is tearing our neighborhoods apart and it must stop now.”
Dr. Daniels added that the Institute of the Black World is once again calling on President Obama to issue an executive order to immediately end the so-called “War on Drugs” which has caused so much unnecessary death and destruction in black communities and has resulted in the mass incarceration of young black people.
“We are meeting to lift our voices in unison in calling for the violence to stop and for the healing to begin. In this righteous fight we are all our sisters and brothers keepers,” he said.
The Town Hall Meeting begins at 6 pm on Thursday evening, Nov. 20th and the mini-conference starts at 9 am on Friday, Nov. 21st.
Research ♦ Policy ♦ Advocacy
