Anchored by Khalil Muhammad, Executive Director of the Schomburg Center in Black Culture (of the New York Public Library), the forum, titled "Engaging Race: On Violence, Citizenship, and Social Justice,” is inspired by recent events in Charleston, South Carolina. But the Charleston massacre is but one catalyst for engaging a range of issues emerging in its wake. Among these, by no means new to this hour, are: the underreported escalation of black church burnings over the last several weeks, the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag, and the unabated instances of police brutality against black bodies, committed with impunity. It bears remembering that Reverend, and state senator, Clementa Pinckney, one of those slain, championed legislation making south Carolina the first state to require all law enforcement agencies to use body cameras. Irony of ironies, the governor of South Carolina signed this bill into law on June 10 -- exactly a week before Pinckney and his parishioners were murdered in cold blood.
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