MLK 2021
MLK JR. COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS
Salt Lake Community College Presents
Racial Inequality, Economic Injustice, and Reparations
January 19, 2021 - 6-8 p.m.
Every discussion of racial inequality must also include discussing racial achievement and the gap in racial income in the United States. Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. At several historical moments, the trajectory of racial inequality could have been altered dramatically.
Today, systematic inequality persists in housing discrimination, unequal education, police brutality, mass incarceration, employment discrimination, and massive wealth and opportunity gaps. Please join us for a panel discussion with some of the preeminent scholars and artists to examine the root(s) of racial inequality and ways to overcome these issues moving forward.
Exonerated Central Park Five
YUSEF SALAAM & RAYMOND SANTANA
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
On the night of April 19, 1989, a young woman was brutally attacked and raped in Central Park. When she recovered, she had no memory of the assault. Five boys, including Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam, were tried and convicted of the crime in a frenzied case that rocked the city. At the time, the defendants were between 14 and 16 years of age. They became known collectively as ‘The Central Park Five.’
On December 19, 2002, the convictions of the five men were overturned. The unidentified DNA in the Central Park Jogger Case – unlinked to any of the five – had finally met its owner, a convicted murderer and serial rapist who confessed. The convictions of the boys, now men, were overturned and they were exonerated.
Since their release, Raymond and Yusef have committed themselves to advocating and educating people on the issues of false confessions, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system.
February 18, 2020
7—8:30 p.m.
The Grand Theatre
1575 So. State St., Salt Lake City, UT