“Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.” - Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography Shirley Chisholm on racism and unconscious bias
One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! - and listens to their testimony.” - Baldwin, No Name on the Street Angela Davis on incarceration “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option - for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.” - John Lewis said of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Martin Luther King, Jr., on injustice “A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. “I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” - Malcolm X John Lewis on justice and democracy These powerful quotes from civil rights leaders and current-day activists remind us why we must keep pushing forward. And we celebrate those who helped bring us to where we are today, as well as those who are continuing the fight to end racism and inequality today. This Black History Month, as we reflect on the progress that has been made since the abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights Act, we also recognize the long way left to go.
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But, despite this progress in voting rights and desegregation, the fight for fair and equal treatment of Black people across this country continues today.Īt the Innocence Project, we work daily to advance justice and equality for all because as Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” And through our work to free the innocent, prevent wrongful conviction, and hold the system accountable, we strive to bend that arc closer to justice. Their struggles - and the struggles of countless Black Americans - helped advance justice and equality in the United States.
Only a few months later, Lewis would make history by leading protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and would himself become a civil rights icon.
On the same tragic day of Malcolm X’s assassination, a young Black organizer from Alabama named John Lewis turned 25. Represented by the Innocence Project and civil rights attorney David Shanies, they were finally exonerated on Nov. The men always maintained their innocence but were wrongly convicted. Aziz (then Norman 3X Butler) and Khalil Islam (then Thomas 15X Johnson). His death sent shockwaves across the country, and three people were quickly arrested - including Muhammad A. 21, while addressing a crowd in New York City’s Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm X was shot and killed 56 years ago, on Feb. 6, 2022: This piece has been updated to reflect the exoneration of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam on Nov.
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