This live virtual panel will discuss Dr. King’s experiences confronting racial discrimination and segregation in New Jersey from his first sit-in in Maple Shade as a seminary student to his speeches in Newark as he began the Poor People’s Campaign. Panelists will summarize the impact of Dr. King’s many trips to New Jersey and highlight how his legacy has continued in the State. The program will be recorded and made available on the Sankofa Collaborative website. Confirmed panelists:

  • Dr. Linda Caldwell Epps, President & CEO, 1804 Consultants
  • Professor Christopher Fisher, College of New Jersey
  • Dr. Jean-Pierre Brutus, Institute for Social Justice
  • Professor Hettie Williams, Monmouth University
  • Mr. Larry Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress
  • Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer, Salvation and Social Justice
  • Mr. Khaatim Sherrer El, Clinton Hill Community Action

Program access link: https://tinyurl.com/MLK-Sankofa

The program is being offered free of charge thanks to a grant from the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission. To view the press release about this event, click here.


The Unfinished Revolution and the African American Experience from Slavery to Today

In June 2023 the Sankofa Collaborative kicked off a four-year series of workshops on the theme of “The Unfinished Revolution and the African American Experience from Slavery to Today,” intended to further the Sankofa Collaborative’s mission to build the capacity of individuals, groups, and organizations to learn about, present, and discuss the complex and difficult issues in the history and current experiences of African American citizens of New Jersey.

Each year’s workshops will focus on an era of African Americans’ struggle for freedom and the inalienable rights promised in the Declaration of Independence at the founding of our nation. In spring and fall 2023 the Collaborative presented Part I and Part II of “Slavery, It Happened Here, Too – Stories from New Jersey.” In 2024, the topic was “Jim Crow in New Jersey – Policies, Regulations, and Practices Supporting Discrimination and Segregation in the Garden State.” The themes for coming years are “The Great Migration to New Jersey – Is This the Promised Land?” (2025) and “Civil Rights in New Jersey Then and Now – Will Black Lives Ever Matter?” (2026).

Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming programs. For event news delivered straight to your inbox, click here to join our mailing list. We will send you program updates as well as our Weekly Resource newsletter.


Materials and resources from past Sankofa Collaborative workshops are available on our Past Programs page.

Here are some photos from past Sankofa Collaborative workshops:

Photos courtesy of Grounds For Sculpture

If you have a question about these or other Sankofa Collaborative events, please contact us directly.

Sankofa Collaborative workshops are made possible, in part, through generous grants from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the New Jersey Historical Commission.