THE DELAWARE STATE BAR ASSOCIATION’S DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Virtual Program & Statewide Day of Service Monday, January 17, 2022 Program: 8:30 a.m.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Deborah Archer President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
EVENT CO-CHAIRS Samuel D. Pratcher III, Esquire Nicole M. Mozee, Esquire
Officers
Kathleen M. Miller President
David A. White Assistant Secretary
Charles J. Durante President-Elect
Francis J. Murphy, Jr. Treasurer
Kate Harmon Vice President-at-Large
Jennifer Ying Assistant Treasurer
Mary Frances Dugan Vice President, New Castle County
Michael F. McTaggart Past President
Anthony V. Panicola Vice President, Kent County Ashley M. Bickel Vice President, Sussex County Samuel D. Pratcher III Vice President, Solo & Small Firms, New Castle County
The Honorable Arlene Minus Coppadge Judicial Member Katelin A. Morales Assistant to President James D. Nutter Special Assistant for Legislative Matters
Stephen A. Spence Vice President, Solo & Small Firms, Sussex County
Loren R. Barron Lori A. Brewington Jamie L. Brown Crystal L. Carey Alberto E. Chávez Kaan Ekiner Thomas P. McGonigle Nicholas D. Mozal Denise Del Giorno Nordheimer Mae Oberste Victoria R. Sweeney Members-at-Large
Ian Connor Bifferato Secretary
Mark S. Vavala Executive Director
Jessie R. Benavides Vice President, Solo & Small Firms, Kent County
Breakfast & Statewide Day of Service Planning Committee Samuel D. Pratcher III Committee Co-Chair
Nicole M. Mozee Committee Co-Chair
Mary I. Akhimien Honorary Committee Co-Chair Gregory B. Williams Honorary Committee Co-Chair Wali W. Rushdan II Honorary Committee Co-Chair
David B. Anthony Committee Member
Kate Harmon Committee Member
Rebecca J. W. Baird Committee Member
Kiadii S. Harmon Committee Member
Jacquelyn A. Chacona Committee Member
Laina M. Herbert Committee Member
Brionna L. Denby Committee Member
Deirdre Sadler-Crew Committee Member
Caroleena Goldman Committee Member
George R. Tsakataras Committee Member
Mark S. Vavala Committee Member
THE DELAWARE STATE BAR ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Virtual Program & Statewide Day of Service • PROGRAM SCHEDULE • Welcome Committee Co-Chair Samuel D. Pratcher III, Esquire Introductory Remarks DSBA President Kathleen M. Miller, Esquire Brief Remarks Keynote Address Dr. King and his Vision for a Beloved Community Deborah Archer President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Closing Remarks Committee Co-Chair Nicole M. Mozee, Esquire • Monday, January 17, 2022
Honoring The Dream In Loving Memory of
The Late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther King acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther King attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished historically Black institution of Atlanta, from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott, described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382
days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank. In 1957, King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience and inspiring his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “I Have a Dream”, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. But his legacy continues to live on. Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam (1972), available at www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-facts.html.
Deborah Archer President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) If there is anyone who’s the perfect fit for their current job, it’s Deborah Archer. As the eighth President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), she leads America’s premier civil rights and civil liberties organization. But it’s not the first time this civil rights lawyer, scholar and teacher has fought for what’s right. In fact, she has been doing it since she was a child. The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Archer’s family moved to the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut, when she was nineyears-old. They soon realized they weren’t welcome — even waking up to “KKK” spray-painted on their home and car. She was terrified until her parents encouraged her to fight back. She took their advice to heart. Archer’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties grew from her family’s personal experience confronting racism, classism and anti-immigrant sentiment. The first person of color to lead the ACLU, Archer is a leading civil rights and civil liberties advocate, civil rights lawyer, professor, writer and commentator. Her talks explore the intersection of race, civil liberties and the law — challenging audiences to confront America’s legacy of racism and injustice. She also helps audiences understand how systemic racism impacts all aspects of American life, from our workplaces and campuses to transportation, education, housing, economic opportunity, criminal law and more. In addition to serving as the eighth President of the ACLU, Archer is Professor of Clinical Law at the New York University School of Law, and Faculty Director of the Law School’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. Previously, she was an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU, where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination and school desegregation. Archer
was also a member of the faculty at New York Law School and an associate at the international law firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. On two separate occasions, she chaired the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency. Archer’s articles have appeared in leading law journals and she has been recognized by the New York Law Journal as one of New York’s Top Women in Law, Archer regularly appears in print and on television to comment on critical political and policy issues. She is a graduate of Yale Law school, where she was awarded the Charles G. Albom Prize, and Smith College. Her moving talks bring that passion and purpose to every audience, inspiring us to not only understand the nature of systemic injustice—but to do the work of overcoming it.
Keynote Address Dr. King and his Vision for a Beloved Community
What Is The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Of Service (“MLK Day Of Service”)? After a long struggle, legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday in recognition of the birthday of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with leading this effort. Taking place each year on the third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a “day on, not a day off.” The MLK Day of Service is part of United We Serve, President Barack Obama’s national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems. The MLK Day of Service empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, creates solutions to social problems, and moves us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community.”
Why Serve On The MLK Day Of Service? Dr. King believed in a nation of freedom and justice for all, and encouraged all citizens to live up to the purpose and potential of America by applying the principles of nonviolence to make this country a better place to live – creating the Beloved Community. The MLK Day of Service is a way to transform Dr. King’s life and teachings into community action that helps solve social problems. That service may meet a tangible need or may meet a need of the spirit. On this day, Americans from every walk of life, of all ages, races, colors, ethnicities, national origins, genders and backgrounds, celebrate Dr. King through service projects that strengthen communities, empower individuals, bridge barriers, and create solutions.
How Can I Serve On The MLK Day Of Service? 2022 DSBA MLK DAY OF SERVICE PROJECTS
Food Bank of Delaware (Newark - 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Help serve families in need by assisting in the Food Bank of Delaware’s volunteer room from 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. The Food Bank’s Newark site is located at 222 Lake Drive, Newark, DE 19702. (Children who wish to participate must be at least 7 years old.) DSBA Project Leader: Wali W. Rushdan II, Esquire Wills for Seniors (Wilmington - 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) Help the Delaware State Bar Association aid Delaware seniors in need of estate planning services. This service project will take place from 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. DSBA Project Leaders: Jacquelyn A. Chacona, Esquire and Caroleena Goldman Sunday Breakfast Mission (Wilmington- 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) Help with food preparation, lunch service to the residents, and clean up at the Sunday Breakfast Mission. This service project will take place at the Sunday Breakfast Mission, located at 110 N. Poplar Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. DSBA Project Leader: Gregory B. Williams, Esquire Emmanuel Dining Room West (Wilmington - 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) Help serve families in need at Emmanuel Dining Room West, located in Wilmington at 2nd and Jackson Streets from 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. DSBA Project Leaders: George R. Tsakataras, Esquire and David B. Anthony, Esquire
Emmanuel Dining Room East (Wilmington - 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) Help serve families in need at Emmanuel Dining Room East, located in Wilmington at 4th and Walnut Streets from 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. DSBA Project Leaders: George R. Tsakataras, Esquire and David B. Anthony, Esquire Friendship House (Wilmington - 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) Sorting, hanging and folding donated clothing and other assigned duties to help families in need. DSBA Project Leaders: Samuel D. Pratcher III, Esquire Expungement Clinic (Virtual - 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) Help Delawareans that are eligible to have their adult or juvenile records expunged. A juvenile or adult expungement could give a person a second chance by removing arrests, charges, or adjudications from their record. DSBA Project Leader: Laina M. Herbert, Esquire
Sponsor Acknowledgment The Delaware State Bar Association is truly grateful to its many sponsors and partners for their sustained commitment and support in making the Delaware State Bar Association’s MLK Breakfast & Statewide Day of Service a great success.
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E M BRACE D IVERSIT Y
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Skadden is proud to support the Delaware State Bar Association and its Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast and Statewide Day of Service. Diversity and excellence are inextricably intertwined.
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Gold Sponsors
“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We’re right around the corner. And always in yours. For nearly 200 years, WSFS Bank has stood for one thing: Service. We’re committed to doing what’s right and helping the communities where we live, work and play. That’s why we’re honored to support The Delaware State Bar Association’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast & Statewide Day of Service.
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Bronze and Friend Sponsors
“We may have all come on
different ships, but we’re all
in the same boat now. ”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I find that if I’m thinking too much of my own problems and the fact that at times things are not just like I want them to be, I don’t make any progress at all. But if I look around and see what I can do, and go on with that, then I move on.” - Rosa Parks, in 1988 talking with an EBONY reporter about coming to peace with the public role as “mother of the civil rights movement.” Photo: Parks with Martin Luther King, Jr.
“ The time is always right to do what is right.” Martin Luther King, Jr.