Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression 44th Anniversary Human Rights Awards program.
Professor Gerald Horne, John J and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston, keynote on the 45th President of the United States: "What means that Trump?".
Preceding the keynote, Frank Chapman speaks on the work of the Alliance to achieve community control of the Chicago Police Department and to free the 108 men still held behind bars even though it is known that police tortured them into confessions.
Racist and criminal policing in Chicago was officially acknowledged when the Chicago City Council awarded $5,000,000 to compensate victims of torture, who after years in prison, some death row, had been exonerated. So many men shared similar experiences of torture that the State of Illinois established a Torture Commission to examine convictions based on evidence obtained by the same cohort of corrupt policemen, with the brief to recommend a rehearing on the merits of their investigation.
The Human Rights Award recipients: Queen Mother Helen Sinclair, 97, has comforted the incarcerated in Illinois since 1945 when her mother was called to live her Christian values by ministering to prisoners in the Cook County jail. She speaks briefly of the history that includes Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King and Rev. Jessie Jackson.
Alderman Carlos Rameriz-Roza whose historic introduction of the Civilian Police Accountability Council Ordinance in the Chicago City Council speaks to peoples movements and what he sees an elected official's responsibility to be.
The A Capella duo KoStar performs during the program.
Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression naarpr.org
Frank Chapman, field organizer for the Alliance, presents one of the awards. He was himself falsely imprisoned in Missouri on a murder and robbery charge. Sentenced to Life + 50 he spent 14 years in prison before the Alliance was able to exonerate him after a 3 year campaign. The Alliance was founded as a part of the massive campaign to free Angela Davis and all political prisoners in 1971-1972. Ted Pearson who presents one of the awards was a founding member of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He earned a BS in Physics from the University of Chicago.