Two Community Dialogues
Thursday, Feb. 28, Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana)
Friday night, March 1, Salem Baptist Church (500 E. Park St., Champaign)
5:30-8:30 p.m. both nights
Keynote Speakers:
Neill Franklin, former narcotics officer and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
Clifford Thornton, anti-Drug War activist and co-founder of Efficacy.
Organized by Citizens with Conviction (CWC), and Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ).
Co-sponsors: Salem Baptist Church, Urbana Human Relations Committee, MAS (Muslim American Society), UC Friends Meeting, ACLU, Breakfast Club, GEO, Planners Network, Educations Justice Project, U of I Department of African American Studies.
This community conversation is to raise awareness about mass incarceration in the United States, what Michelle Alexander calls “The New Jim Crow.” This series of talks has the aim of finding solutions to what even the Obama administration has admitted is a failed Drug War. It is also part of our local campaign to oppose a proposal for an expanded jail in Champaign County that could cost up to $20 million.