The Faith & Politics Institute is delighted to bring to you luminaries from our renowned FPI Pilgrimages online Thursdays at 4:00 pm EDT starting in May. Each week we will host a live discussion for families about young Americans who led in extraordinary ways to bend the "arc of the moral universe' towards justice. Stories and photos will be shared by activists, their children and others who are dedicated to revealing the details hidden from the history books.
Here’s a sneak peak at one of our Virtual Pilgrimage stories. Scroll down and enjoy the full episode and more.
Watch More FPI Virtual Pilgrimage Stories
Ray of Light Anthony Ray Hinton June 25, 2020
FPI sat down with Anthony Ray Hinton, author of The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. on June 25, 2020. Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. He was wrongly convicted in 1985 for the murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2015 the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction on appeal. Since his release, Hinton has spoken about the injustices of the Alabama judicial system and the other issues related to his conviction and imprisonment. We were moved by his powerful remarks on pilgrimage in March, words that are a call to action for our times.
True Meaning to the word justice with Judge Myron Thompson June 18, 2020
Watch our discussion on the impact of landmark civil and human rights decisions since 1955 from the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Alabama, with Judge Myron Thompson, a Senior United States District Judge, as our featured speaker, and guest moderator Fred Smith Jr. who is an associate professor at Emory University School of Law; he clerked for Judge Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Supreme Court..
During FPI's 2020 Pilgrimage to Alabama, we had the chance to learn more about Judge Thompson's predecessor, Judge Frank M. Johnson, a Republican in the blue South, who played a pivotal role in shaping civil rights laws in the U.S. and enforcing them in Alabama. On June 18, 2020 Judge Myron Thompson shared his predecessor's impact on landmark civil rights cases from the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Selma to Montgomery March, to the trial of Viola Liuzzo's killers, and how decisions that impacted Thompson's life. Further, Judge Thompson and Mr. Smith discussed several landmark decisions issued by Judge Thompson from that same historic courtroom where Judge Johnson presided.
Music to inspire, educate, and call to action June 16, 2020
Musical inspiration has always played a significant role in our nation's history and can be a powerful social impact tool. Enjoy FPI's virtual pilgrimage hour with civil rights luminaries Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Freedom Singers Bettie Mae Fikes and Charles Neblett, and award-winning songwriter Joshuah Campbell who sing together and discuss the importance of music in the Freedom Movement, then and now.
Felicia Sanders & Polly Shepard June 11, 2020
On June 11, we reflected on the events that have led Americans to march in cities and towns throughout the country for racial justice. We gathered to remember our 2016 bipartisan Congressional Pilgrimage led by Congressman James E. Clyburn and Senator Tim Scott following the June 17, 2015, mass shooting motivated by racism at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church. Our special guests are Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, survivors of the attack.
KING'S YOUNGEST FOOT SOLDIER, SHEYANN WEBB June 4, 2020
Sheyann Webb Christburg is known as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Smallest Freedom Fighter" and co-author of the book Selma, Lord, Selma. As a nine-year-old, Webb took part in the first attempt at the Selma to Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday.
AMERICAN HERO HARRIET TUBMAN With Kate Clifford Larson and Karen Hill May 28,2020
Historian Kate Clifford Larson, bestselling author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, and Karen Hill, CEO of The Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, NY will bring to life the history of this most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.
LITTLE ROCK NINE'S Minnijean Brown-Trickey May 21,2020
Minnijean Brown-Trickey was a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine African American teenagers who integrated Arkansas' Little Rock Central High School in September of 1957. She helped desegregate public schools after the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, altering the course of education in America.
Civil Rights Luminary Fred Korematsu with Karen Korematsu May 14,2020
Our guest Karen Korematsu joins us from California, home of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, she founded to honor her father, Fred Korematsu's legacy. Fred challenged Japanese American internment during World War II. The Korematsu Institute educates to advance racial equality, social justice and human rights for all.
Mom, Wife, & Civil Rights Martyr Viola Liuzzo With Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe May 7,2020
Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, became a part of the civil rights movement at age 17 after her mother, Viola Liuzzo, was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan shortly after participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She was the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement.