Lowell Lecture
Gerrymandered! The Struggle for Fair Representation in Redistricting
Date & Time
March 16, 2022 at 7 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Location
Virtual
, MA
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
IVÁN ESPINOZA-MADRIGAL is the Executive Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), an organization founded at the request of President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s at the height of the civil rights movement. Iván has filed and won dozens of life-changing and law-changing cases on a wide range of civil rights issues, including immigrants’ rights and LGBT/HIV equality. His work is regularly featured in publications such as the New York Times.
ROBERT DAVID JOHNSON is a Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. In 2007-2008, he taught at Tel Aviv University as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. Professor Johnson received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard and his M.A. from the University of Chicago. His books include Congress and the Cold War, which was published by Cambridge University Press and won the D.B. Hardeman Prize. He has written widely on 20th and 21st century U.S. political, diplomatic, and legal affairs.
CHERYL CRAWFORD is the 1st Vice President of the NAACP-Boston Branch. She is a former Executive Board Chair of EmergeMA, a political leadership training program. Cheryl sits on the Women’s Pipeline for Change’s Oversight and Planning Board. She is an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star; a Prince Hall affiliated organization. She is a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Council on Racial Justice and Equity. Most recently she was appointed to the Citizens’ Commission on Constitutional Amendment, as well as a board member of American Promise. Before MassVOTE, Cheryl served as Campaign Manager and then Chief of Staff to State Representative Willie Mae Allen. Born in New York, Cheryl grew up in Boston; and is a graduate of Lesley College, Cambridge, MA.
Presenting Organization
Topics
Contact
Revolutionary Spaces (info@revolutionaryspaces.org, 6177201713)
From the mythical salamander Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry created to slice up Essex County to benefit the Democratic-Republicans in 1812 to the hotly contested areas we see across the country today, “gerrymandered” districts are still an outrage on both sides of the aisle and a hurdle in the fight for fair representation. In this installment of the Essential Questions Series, we’ll examine the enduring question: “Who speaks for me?” through the lens of the struggle for non-partisan redistricting. Join Professor Robert David “KC” Johnson, Lawyer’s for Civil Rights Executive Director Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, and MASSVote Executive Director Cheryl Crawford for this virtual panel discussion on the fight for fair representation.
This event is supported in part by a grant from the Lowell Institute.