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In this third and final gala marking the 50th anniversaries of civil rights milestones, EJS commemorated the 50th anniversaries of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Our gala was at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco on September 9, 2015.
Our gala will again feature performances by our Civil Rights at 50 Artistic Partners Marcus Shelby, Steven Anthony Jones, and Joanna Haigood.
We celebrated the achievements and contributions of four honorees. Watch their remarks from our event:
Rev. James Lawson
In the 1960s, the Reverend James Lawson organized and led one of the most effective campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance in the 20th century: the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins for the US Civil Rights Movement. In the years that followed he was involved in strategic planning of numerous other major campaigns and actions and was called “the mind of the movement” and “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
#BlackLivesMatter and Alicia Garza
#BlackLivesMatter is a national organizing project focused on combatting anti-Black state sanctioned violence. Alicia co-founded created #BlackLivesMatter with Patrisse Cullors and OpalTometi as a call to action for Black people after the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology; Co-Director, Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions (SPARQ) Stanford University; 2014 MacArthur Fellow
Joaquin G. Avila
Nationally recognized expert on Latino voting rights; Former director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law; Led efforts to enact the California State Voting Rights Act of 2001; 1996 MacArthur fellow
Thank you for your support!
Eva Paterson
EJS President
Civil Rights at 50 Campaign Co-Chairs: Eva Paterson, Quinn Delaney, Dolores Huerta, Thomas A. Saenz, Dale Minami
Gala Honorary Co-Chairs: Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock
Gala Committee: Sharon Bell, Chuck Collins, Karen Francois, Michael Harris, Linda Li, Kelly McCreary, Priscilla Ocen, Dan Roth, Cheryl Stevens, Cheryl Ward, Charles Ward