Media Releases

 
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), Parks & Crump law firm, and the McMillian family will convene a national press conference to address the autopsy results of the late Marco McMillian, a Black mayoral candidate in Clarksdale, Mississippi, who was also gay. Family members and civil rights community leaders will demand a federal investigation by the Department of Justice. NBJC has secured Parks & Crump, the Trayvon Martin family attorneys, to represent the McMillian family. Patricia McMillian, mother of Marco McMillian, will be present.
 
Confirmed speakers include: Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director and CEO, NBJC; Derrick Johnson, President, Mississippi NAACP; Carter Womack, McMillian family spokesperson; Daryl Parks, Esq., McMillian family attorney, Parks & Crump law firm. Other individuals/organizations expected to attend and speak, including politicians, will be announced in the future.
 

In response to today’s announcement from Washington Wizards center Jason Collins that he is gay, NBJC Executive Director Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks released the following statement:
I applaud Jason Collins for taking the bold step in naming his truth and celebrating his identity as a Black gay man. While many continue to give life to a narrative that pits the Black community and the Civil Rights movement against LGBT equality, Jason’s revelation helps validate the lived experience for the many Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals who live at the intersection of this problematic debate.

On Bayard's 101st birthday (March 17), we are well into the 50th anniversary year of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  Many consider the March the highpoint of the African-American civil rights movement, and it is certainly the finest example of Bayard's organizing genius.  If you are visiting Washington, DC, before September 15th, be sure to see "Changing America," at the Smithsonian's American History Museum.  The exhibit, a collaborative effort with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, celebrates both the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  Bayard is featured prominently, and the exhibit includes a gold pocket watch presented to him by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in appreciation for his leading role in organizing the March. For more information visit the Smithsonian website.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief, urging the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional for California to outlaw the freedom to marry. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, applauds the Obama Administration for forging the fight for marriage equality forward.