Showing posts with label The Riverside Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Riverside Church. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Trayvon Martin March For Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact : Carlene Pinto : (212) 870-6854 or cpinto@theriversdiechurchny.org

RELIGIOUS LEADERS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ORGANIZE
MARCH FOR JUSTICE ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN HARLEM

(New York, NY - April 12, 2012) —On Friday, April 13, 2012 at 5 p.m., the Mission & Social Justice Department of the Riverside Church of New York along with the Carry on Community Development Corporation of Convent Ave. Baptist Church will march for Justice through Harlem for Trayvon Martin and all the victims of racial profiling. The march is scheduled to begin at West 120th Street & Claremont Avenue and end at Convent Ave. & West 144th Street.

Event Date : Friday, April 13, 2012

Begin Time : 5 p.m.

Meeting Place : West 120th Street & Claremont Avenue

While our nation has awakened to the February 26th murder of Trayvon Martin, his case is but one example of a long-standing civil and human rights crisis that plagues our nation's history. This long-standing civil rights crisis has in this current period heightened the racism that institutionally cripples our society and our communities of color.

Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida, by a Neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman who pursued, confronted, and shot the 17-year-old who was unarmed. After weeks of doubt, Zimmerman was finally charged with Second Degree Murder by a Special Prosecutor. Zimmerman is expected to assert an affirmative defense under a controversial Florida law known as "Stand Your Ground."

“We will march for justice for Trayvon Martin, march for all of the victims of racial profiling, and march for the lives lost to an unjust, racialized system. We will march to never forget the names of the lives lost” said The Reverend Emery Ailes from the Prison Ministry at Convent Ave. Baptist Church.

March organizers call on all community organizations and churches to join the march tomorrow with hooded sweatshirts and posters of support. New Yorkers are encouraged to lend your voice to those who have been silenced -- and to use mass media to spread the word! -- that Trayvon Martin, Ramarley Graham, Danroy Henry, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and the numerous others that have lost their lives will never be forgotten.

The Riverside Church of New York along with the Carry on Community Development Corporation at Convent Ave. Baptist Church invite all members of the faith community as well as the Harlem and New York City communities to join the march as we continue to call attention to the injustices which affect all of us, our children, and our futures.

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

At The Riverside Church, A Covenant To End DOMA

Invitation to Wedding and Covenant to End DOMA at The Riverside Church (Fundraiser)

On Sunday, October 30, 2011, TJ Williams and Brad Hover are to be married at The Riverside Church in New York City in a ceremony, which will include a prayer -- calling on President Barak Obama to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) before the end of his second term in office.  TJ and Brad are calling this special prayer a Covenant to End DOMA

"My partner and I started planning our wedding before we even knew that marriage equality would be made legal in New York State. But we had faith that the laws would be changed in our endless effort towards achieving equality," said TJ Williams.

To raise money for the wedding and for the Covenant to End Doma, TJ has released the above YouTube fundraiser video. TJ and Brad need your help to gather leaders and speakers and others for a civil rights event, where President Obama will be asked to covenant with our nation's communities and its leaders to end DOMA before the end of his second term. All donations will be used for this service and for purposes of community-building around social justice.

Under the discrimination of DOMA, no state is required to acknowledge the legal same-sex marriages, even if they are legal in other states.  Participants in the Covenant to End DOMA are also hoping that this event will spur a conversation that would encourage unity between the African American community and the LGBT community, as we face the 2012 election year.