50th Anniversary A Celebration of the Continuing Struggle for Voting Rights Saturday, February 28, 2015 1:00PM to 3:00PM Swyer Theatre, Empire State Plaza Albany, New York Honorary Committee Albert DeSalvo Douglas Bullock Mike & Kay MacLaury Albert F Gordon Hon. Daniel P. McCoy Nancy Willie Schiff & Peter Schiff Alice Brody Hon. Darius Shahinfar Paul & Suzanne Murray Ann & Donald Eberle Hon. Judy Doesschate Ray Newkirk Anonymous(1) Hon. Kathleen M. Jimino Rev. Christopher DeGiovine Barbara Zaron Hon. Pat Fahy Rev. Dr. Lynn Ashley Barry Z. Davis Jaye Holly & Judy Yeckley Rev. Sam Trumbore Betsey Miller Jean E. Poppei Richard and Dawn Dana Chuck & Barbara Manning John & Peggy Sherman Social Action Committee Congressman Paul D. Tonko Marcia & Findley Cockrell Congregation Beth Emeth David Quist & Britany Orlebeke Mark Mishler & Renee Hariton Steve & Jeanette Gottlieb Deboray Dewey Martha Swan Wanda Fischer Donna Crisafulli & Mary Applegate Alice Richard Kuhnmunch Mayor Kathy Sheehan Sponsors Unitarian Universalist Funding Panel M & T Bank Honest Weight Food Coop Siena College Angel Bed & Breakfast Underground Railway Project Center for Law and Justice Scanlan Communications Capital Region Unitarian Univ. of NY Albany Public Schools United Employees First Unitarian Univ. Society of Albany Albany County Central Federation of Labor New Covenant Presbyterian Church Alice Green & Charles Touhey Other Donors Paul & Mary Liz Stewart, David Preston, Bernie Mulligan, William Phillips, Gary Thompson, Dan & Nancy Berggren, David Munro, Patricia Barbanell, Randy Rosette Jensen, Tom Baker, Kay Connolly PANELISTS Nell Stokes-Holmes was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. As a young woman she partici- pated in the historic Montgomery bus boycott that launched the national Civil Rights Movement. Since moving to the Capital Region in 1963 she has been active in many community organizations. She serves on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Scholarship Committee of the Capital Area Council of Churches, having been its chair for 18 years. Nell volunteers with the 15 Love Reading Program at Giffen Elementary School in Albany and with the League of Women Voters. She is also a poet and a playwright. Anne Pope is a native of Shubuta, Mississippi. Soon after arriving in Albany she joined the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). For 20 years she was president of the Albany branch. She has also served on state and national NAACP panels. She is vice-chair of the Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King Lecture Series at Siena Col- lege. Anne has long been active in community affairs and is a strong and consistent voice for equal representation and treatment for citizens of color. Patricia Barbanell was a Freedom School teacher in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom summer pro- ject. She earned a doctorate from Columbia University and embarked on a career in education. She has decades of experience in integrated arts education, multicultural programming and tech- nology integration. Dr. Barbanell has presented at scores of professional conferences, has been published in arts, technology, and multicultural education journals, and has served on several NYS Education Department advisory committees. She is past president of both the NYS Art Teachers and the NYS Council of Educational Associations. Mark Mishler is an Albany civil rights attorney. He has successfully litigated cases involving police brutality, first amendment rights, discrimination in housing, employment and public accommoda- tions, as well as numerous criminal trials. Mark received his law degree, with honors, from Boston College School of Law in 1981. In addition to his practice, Mark is a community activist, having worked on issues such as police misconduct, voting rights, labor rights, strengthening public schools, and in the solidarity movement against apartheid. Paul Murray is Professor of Sociology at Siena College. In 1966 he was a summer civil rights vol- unteer in Madison County, Mississippi. During the 1970s he was a statistical consultant on voting rights cases for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law. He has published numerous articles about civil rights for professional journals and reference works. From 1990 to 1994 he served as an elected member of the Albany City School District Board of Education. MARTYRS OF THE SELMA STRUGGLE Capital Region Residents Who Marched in Selma Jimmie Lee Jackson was a 26 year-old father of a young daughter and a deacon in his church. Susan Butler is a retired New York City teacher living in retirement in Chestertown, New York. In 1964 she On February 18, 1965, he joined a protest march in Marion, Alabama, together with his sister, went to Mississippi as a volunteer in the Freedom Summer project where she taught young children in a Free- mother, and grandfather. When police and state troopers broke up the march demonstrators dom School. She learned about the March 7 attack on civil rights marchers attempting to march from Selma to ran to nearby houses and stores for safety. Jackson and his family sought refuge in Mack’s Café. Montgomery while watching “Judgment at Nuremburg” on television. She and Al Gordon flew to Alabama Troopers followed them and began beating Jackson’s mother. As he tried to protect her, troop- where they stayed for two weeks, living in a home in the black community, and participating in daily mass er James Fowler shot Jackson twice in the stomach. He died eight days later. Speaking at his meetings and demonstrations. In April 1968 she and Gordon represented the United Federation of Teachers funeral, Martin Luther King called Jackson, “a martyred hero of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.” On March (UFT) at a memorial march for the recently assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by striking Memphis sanita- 7 civil rights organizers began a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest Jackson’s murder. tion workers. Albert Gordon is a retired New York City teacher and gallery owner now living in Stephentown, New York. In 1961 he became a Freedom Rider and was arrested while attempting to desegregate the Jackson, Mississippi, Greyhound bus station. He was convicted of “breach of peace” and served 39 days in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Prison farm. In 1965 he returned to the South, with fellow teacher Susan Butler, to participate in the Rev. James Reeb was a Unitarian minister who left his wife and four children in Boston to answer Martin Luther King’s call for people of faith to join the Selma demonstrations. After eating dinner at a voting rights demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gordon and Butler were arrested while trying to local restaurant, Reeb and two other ministers were attacked by men armed with clubs. He suffered a picket outside the home of Selma Mayor, Joe Smitherman. On March 21 they walked the first seven miles of fractured skull and died from his injuries two days later. His murder raised a national outcry against the Selma to Montgomery march. racism in the Deep South. King praised Reeb saying, “James Reeb symbolizes the forces of good will in Reverend John “Jack” Johnson was born in Shubuta, Mississippi, in 1909. In 1931 he moved to Albany where our nation. He demonstrated the conscience of the nation. He was a witness to the truth that men of he met and married Dorothy M. Charles. Together they raised seven children. From 1932 to 1990,he transport- different races and classes might live, eat, and work together as brothers.” ed over 100 families from Shubuta to Albany. He became known as a modern day Harriet Tubman. In 1952 Elder Johnson founded St. John’s Church of God in Christ, now pastored by Rev. McKinley B. Johnson, Sr. In 1965 Rev. Johnson returned to the South to join Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the historic Selma to Montgom- ery march. Rev. Johnson went home to be with the Lord on July 4, 2004. William “Will” Scanlan was a Roman Catholic priest of the Brooklyn Diocese when he flew to Alabama to par- Viola Gregg Liuzzo was a Detroit housewife and mother of five who came to Alabama to help with the Selma to Montgomery march. On March 25, 1965, after the conclusion of the march, she drove back to Selma with ticipate in the final day of the Selma to Montgomery march. At the time he was assistant superintendent of a young black man as a passenger. A car carrying four Ku Klux Klansmen tried to force her off the road and Catholic schools in Brooklyn. When he told his boss he would be absent from his post because of his trip to opened fire. Two shots hit Liuzzo in the head, killing her instantly. Her companion escaped by pretending to Selma, he was told, “I can't support what you're doing, but you can have the day off,” Dressed in his clerical be dead. Three men were tried for the crime, but despite eye witness testimony, no one was convicted of garb, he joined his two pals, Fathers Jim Regan and Charlie Cushing, officially suited up as well. Early in the her murder. morning of March 25 they boarded a plane bound for Montgomery, Alabama chartered by clergy of all faiths. The three priests from Brooklyn joined the last leg of the journey, singing and walking for the rest of the day to the Alabama Capitol, surrounded by thousands of others. Scanlan was released from his priestly vows by the Vatican. In l968 he married Mary Sheehan, of New York. The couple later moved to the Capital Region where they raised two daughters. Will Scanlan died on January 5, 2011. Selma Voting Rights Time line Keynote speaker: Colia Liddell LaFayette Clark 1933 Amelia Platts (Boynton) helps establish the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) to encourage African American voter registration in Selma.