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Criminal justice reform is one of the most pressing issues facing lawmakers in Massachusetts. A reform bill is working its way through the statehouse, however, prisoner advocates argue that too often the policy makers do not reflect the communities who are disproportionately impacted. In this anniversary gathering, organizers of the original gathering [#StuckOnReplay](http://forum-network.org/lectures/stuckonreplay-striving-social-justice/ "") attempt to move the conversation out of the State House and back into the community.

The Massachusetts criminal justice system is part of a program called the Justice Reinvestment Initiative—a national review of criminal justice data to determine where to cut costs in Corrections and how to improve the system. The state will receive recommendations for its criminal justice funding in 2017, and a new coalition wants to involve the communities in Boston that are most affected by high youth incarceration rates. This coalition will strategize how to engage the lawmakers deciding the system reforms in 2017. That new coalition is made up of Opportunity Youth United – Boston, Community Action Team, Teen Empowerment and MassINC. They are planning a series of 3 events with youth, community organizations and leaders around the issue of youth incarceration and the negative affect it has on them, their families, and their neighborhoods. » More about [Stuck on Replay](http://www.stuckonreplay.org/ "").

Almost three decades after WGBH first presented Henry Hampton's Eyes on the Prize to the nation, WORLD Channel began rebroadcasting the 14-part documentary in January 2016. WGBH and WORLD look back at the landmark civil rights series with clips from the original and from Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now, a special examining the series' impact on a new generation of viewers. Moderated by WGBH News Senior Reporter Phillip Martin, the panel discussion includes Judy Richardson, Eyes on the Prize Associate Producer and Education Director, and Melissa Nobles, Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at MIT.

Rev. Eugene Rivers moderates a discussion between two authors, Daniel Geary and Benjamin Hedin, who have documented their own examinations of the American Civil Rights Movement and the Moynihan Report. The three men discuss the impact and legacy of the movement, the report, and how to learn from what happened fifty years ago that can inform the new unrest today, as protests continue over police shootings and the new Black Lives Matter movement matures. Study Geary's [annotated version of the Moynihan Report](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-moynihan-report-an-annotated-edition/404632/ "") in _The Atlantic_. (Photo: [Dan La Botz](http://www.anticapitalistes.net/spip.php?article5020 ""))

The adoption of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. And yet fifty years later we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power--over the right to vote, the central pillar of our democracy. Berman's latest book, _Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America_, gives a groundbreaking narrative history of voting rights since 1965. From new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth, to cynical efforts to limit political representation by gerrymandering electoral districts, to the Supreme Court's recent stunning decision that declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act itself unconstitutional, to the efforts by the Justice Department and grassroots activists to counter these attacks, Berman tells the dramatic story of the pitched contest over the very heart of our democracy. (Image: [Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t](https://www.flickr.com/photos/truthout/6211660601/ ""))

On the day marking 50 years since President Johnson and the U.S. Congress signed the Voting Rights Act into law, a distinguished collection of leaders and activists convened by the [Museum of African American History](http://forum-network.org/partner/museum-african-american-history/ "MAAH Partner Page") and the [Social Justice Institute at Boston University](http://www.bu.edu/cpt/2015/03/25/social-justice-institute-poverty-race-and-sexuality/ "SJI at BU"), will discuss how our pioneers of social justice understood the pleas of a marginalized people and led the charge for equality. Frederick Douglass underscored the importance of the vote when he declared, “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot,” in a speech delivered May 1865. Nearly 100 years later, voting rights continued to be a focus of the modern civil rights movement, with a march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital in Montgomery on March 7, 1965. This peaceful protest was met by an attack by state troopers at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. Following years of organized campaigns for equal rights and attacks against protestors, culminated by the violence on what is now known as “Bloody Sunday,” moved President Johnson and the U.S. Congress to act. Five months later on August 6, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. Challenges to this 1965 milestone, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other landmark decisions continue to be met by all manner of resistance. (Image: Lyndon Johnson signs Voting Rights Act of 1965//en.wikipedia.org)

To commemorate the 90th birthday of the slain civil rights leader **Malcolm X**, critically acclaimed author **Ilyasah Shabazz** talked about her new book celebrating the life of her father. Shabazz shares personal reflections from her early years with him through excerpts, speaks about events that inspired his life's work, and tells how his voice, beliefs, and lessons were a vital part of her childhood and a powerful influence on who she has become.

Museum of African American History, National Voting Rights Museum and New Democracy Coalition present **Black Votes Matter: The Mississippi Theater of the Civil Rights Movement and Voting Rights Act.** Bob Moses’ vision of grass roots organizing led him to become a leader in the civil rights movement and Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. He initiated and organized voter registration drives, sit-ins, and Freedom Schools for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that he appreciated Moses' fresh ideas, calling his "contribution to the freedom struggle in America" an "inspiration." Nearly 40 years later, the renowned activist began organizing again, this time as teacher and founder of the national math literacy program called the Algebra Project. His work was recognized with a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, which he used to found the Algebra Project. He argues that the crisis in math literacy in poor communities is as urgent as the crisis of political access in Mississippi in 1961. Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (Photo: President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, via [Wikimedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 ""))

The 2015 Spring Lowell Lecture hosted by BU's School of Theology featured a conversation with two alumni who had participated in marches in Alabama after the events of Bloody Sunday that took place on March 7, 1965. Joining the two alumni was Reverend Dr. Pamela Lightsey, who traveled to Ferguson, Missouri in the fall of 2014 to witness the new wave of civil protests that took place after the killing of Michael Brown. She shared video footage from her participation as clergy marching in with the protesters. Following the discussion, the Seminary Singers Concert features Mark Miller, Minister of Music at Church Christ in Summit and faculty at Drew Theological and the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale.

In light of increasingly intense, racially charged events in Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere across the country, Trinity Church in the City of Boston is elevating race relations as a point for public discussion. To spotlight what Trinity Church’s Rector, the Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd, calls “the urgent issue of our time,” Trinity is sponsoring the inaugural Anne B. Bonnyman Symposium – “We Still Have a Dream: End Racism” – on Sun., Jan. 18, 2015. Free and open to the public, the symposium will be held at Trinity Church, Copley Square. Moderator: The Honorable **Barbara Dortch-Okara**