WHAT: A PRESS CONFERENCE AND COMMUNITY GATHERING TO LAUNCH A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF MILITARY VETERANS, VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF POLICE BRUTALITY, EX-POLICE AND CORRECTIONS OFFICERS, ACTIVISTS, CLERGY, EXONEREES AND CONCERNED CITIZENS, WHO ARE IN SUPPORT OF COLIN KAEPERNICK,

 PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT :

LA Currier

781-492-3552

# ENDINJUSTICE  

WHAT:      A PRESS CONFERENCE  AND COMMUNITY GATHERING  TO LAUNCH A NATIONAL  CAMPAIGN OF MILITARY VETERANS, VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF POLICE BRUTALITY,  EX-POLICE AND CORRECTIONS OFFICERS,  ACTIVISTS, CLERGY,  EXONEREES AND CONCERNED CITIZENS, WHO ARE IN SUPPORT OF COLIN  KAEPERNICK, THE  NFL PLAYERS, AND THE TAKING BACK THEIR MESSAGE: WE HAVE  AN UNDENIABLE  AND URGENT NEED FOR POLICE REFORM (ON STREETS AND IN PRISONS), CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM, AND AN END TO RACIAL INJUSTICE.

WHEN:      OCTOBER 23RD    2:00 – 3:15 PM

WHERE:    MADISON PARK HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD, ROXBURY, MA

                     (CORNER OF RUGGLES ST. & DEWITT DRIVE   *  RAIN OR SHINE  * )

WHO:   Jamele Dozier, uncle of “DJ” Danroy Henry, who was killed by police in upstate NY, and whose story will be featured in a 48 Hours special by James Brown; Darneese Carnes, Boston resident who, with her son, survived an attack by BPD;  Lynn Currier, Director of Haitkaah Social Justice project, who missed being killed by a concussion grenade thrown by police in Standing Rock, SD; Savina Martin, US Army Veteran and Tri-Chair of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival;  Ernest Partin Jr, Disabled US Air Force Veteran, who was injured and honorably discharged from Lebanon and Grenada era; Charles Muhammad, former police officer and DOC officer; Lucas Currier, youth activist of Native, African and European American decent; Kevin Peterson, New Democracy Coalition; Darrell Jones, activist and entrepreneur, recently released from prison after 32 years served for a wrongful conviction; Cassandra Bensahih, Coordinator of Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement; Brother Larry Muhammad, The Nation of Islam,,Mosque11, Dorchester, MA; Bishop Fillipe Teixeira, St. Frances of Assisi, Brockton, MA

SPONSORS:   Haitkaah Social Justice Project, Veterans For Peace, New Democracy Coalition, The Massachusetts 6, Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement, Dorchester People for Peace  

Sports And Social Issues DO Intersect-In Honor Of Muhammad Ali, Tommy Smith And John Carlos-Colin Kaepernick-Same Struggle-Same Fight

Sports And Social Issues DO Intersect-In Honor Of Muhammad Ali, Tommy Smith And John Carlos-Colin Kaepernick-Same Struggle-Same Fight   

By Frank Jackman

It is hard to believe not that many of the same social issues, the question of racial and sexual equality in particular, from 50 years ago still haunt the land but that the yahoo, yes, yahoo reaction is still the same. Today we are talking about the intersection of sports and social issues but it could have been anything from the #MeToo movement to voter suppression in Georgia and elsewhere. It has been a while since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, ah, ex-quarterback “took the knee” to highlight in a personal way the charged subject of black inequality and police brutality toward the black community. But given the resurgent flack with the Nike contract it pays to mention that his work, his political work has a fairly long pedigree.

That pedigree without going back further in time got highlighted for me recently by two things I noticed when I was down in Washington, D.C. on another assignment and on fellow writer Seth Garth recommendation I stepped into the National Portrait Gallery’s year-long exhibition on that fateful year 1968 which we are now commemorating the 50^th anniversary of many of the key and shocking events. I have mentioned elsewhere, as have a number of the old guard writers at this publication who also came of age in those times, my reaction to the events and so need not detain the reader on that score. A couple of photographs got me thinking about sports and society if you will. One was a clip of Muhammad Ali (former Cassius Clay) talking about his reasoning for refusing draft induction in the U.S. military during the height of the Vietnam War and the other was the perhaps more famous one of Olympic champion at the 200m Tommy Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos “taking the raised black fist” on the medal podium in Mexico City.        

Both situation evoked hue and cry from rabid sports nuts, ravenous sports officials and their hangers-on in the media and of course the disturbed the boast corporate sponsors of all things sports. So Colin join the club. What seems weird some fifty years later when the sports industry, yes, industry cries foul when business as usual, which means the population consuming what ever sports package is presented is upended by political and social controversy like this area of life was in some kind of no entrance bubble. Now I admit I am not much of a sports fan, maybe a little college football because I have felt that this was one of the least consumer-driven areas although even that is suspect but whether I agree with whatever tactic is being used sports is “fair game” as a platform for talking about social injustices and the like. Hell, the other side, the yahoos,  have been spouting their mores, morals, and bullshit forever. One example takes the thing in the right direction. At one time early in the 20^th century professional baseball had blacks on major league teams. Then the owners got together and froze blacks out as a concession to racial animosities among whites. It took practically a civil war in itself, witness the Jackie Robinson story, to get blacks back in. Case closed.