BLACK HISTORY MONTH: NYCLA PRESENTS FREE SCREENING OF DOCUMENTARY – BRICK BY BRICK: A CIVIL RIGHTS STORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Anita Aboulafia 212-267-6646, ext. 225, aaboulafia@nycla.org

 

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: NYCLA PRESENTS FREE SCREENING

OF DOCUMENTARY – BRICK BY BRICK: A CIVIL RIGHTS STORY

 

February 20, 2008 – New York, NY – The New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) will present a free screening of a documentary, Brick By Brick: A Civil Rights Story, on Wednesday, February 27 at 6:00 PM at the NYCLA Home of Law – 14 Vesey Street. The one-hour documentary depicts the battle fought against housing discrimination in Yonkers, New York that was the subject of a protracted federal court case. Bill Kavanagh, the documentary’s director and producer, will speak at the screening. Also speaking will be Winston A. Ross, executive director of the Westchester Community Opportunity Program, who grew up in segregated Yonkers and helped launch the lawsuit. Mr. Ross is the former president of the Yonkers Branch of the NAACP and a civil rights activist.

 

Brick by Brick tracks the resulting of federal U.S. v. Yonkers litigation, which challenged neighborhood and educational discrimination. The primary storytellers are local people from different backgrounds, who relate their personal encounters with housing and educational discrimination, as well as others who experienced very different opportunities across town.

 

NYCLA’s Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Committees are sponsors of the screening.

 

This event is among the myriad NYCLA events taking place during the Association’s Centennial year celebration, which commenced in April 2007 and ends in December 2008. NYCLA (www.nycla.org) was founded in April 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

 

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