Black Lives Matter

India Spellman is an innocent young woman who has spent over a decade in prison for crimes she did not commit. She was just 17 years old and a standout on her high school basketball team when she was framed for a robbery and homicide in Philadelphia. She had never previously been in trouble with the law. We can prove that India Spellman is legally and factually innocent of the crimes in question. She is the victim of police misconduct, coercion, and the fabricated testimony of a 14 year old child. Since taking office, District Attorney Larry Krasner has not exonerated a single women. India Spellman deserves to be the first. Here's why: India has consistently maintained her innocence. Her alibi--that she was home at the time of the crimes--is substantiated by witnesses and phone records.  Additionally, India does not come close to matching eyewitness descriptions of the perpetrator. Eyewitnesses describe the perpetrator as "dark skinned," "thick," "heavy," "chunky," "180 lbs," "size 18," and between the ages of 25 - 30. India was a skinny teenager. The officer who took her into custody described her as "thin." She was then and remains now light skinned. India was denied access to her parents and attorney while in police custody. She was subject to physical and psychological abuse during her interrogation by homicide detectives. One of the detectives who interrogated her has since been arrested for perjury and obstruction of justice. Enough is enough! Join us in urging the Philadelphia District Attorney's to exonerate India Spellman!!      

When Fred D. Gray opened his law practice in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954, he had one mission: to destroy everything segregated he could find. Despite the risks as a Black man in the Jim Crow South, he set out to do just that. Over a career as an iconic civil rights lawyer who, at 91, still practices today, Mr. Gray has been an unsung hero who has contributed to some of the most consequential cases of the civil rights movement.  Mr. Gray represented Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old African American high school student who refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  He represented Rosa Parks, who was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  He was the first civil rights attorney for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who referred to him as the “brilliant young Negro” who later became “chief counsel for the protest movement.”  And one day after Bloody Sunday in 1965, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of John Lewis and others that would allow marchers to peacefully cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and march on to Montgomery, AL in pursuit of voting rights – a historic event that led to the Voting Rights Act. A crowning achievement in Mr. Gray’s long career was his successful legal battle for restitution for the victims of the abhorrent government-sponsored Tuskegee medical experiments that in the mid-20th century allowed dozens of African American men to go untreated for syphilis. Mr. Gray founded and now serves as President of the Tuskegee History Center, established to honor the victims of the atrocity. Mr. Gray has received numerous awards and honors throughout his lifetime. But perhaps no award more quintessentially befits him than the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sign this petition to urge President Biden to honor Attorney Fred D. Gray in his sunset years with this prestigious honor.

       As of December 2021, it has now been over five years since The Bronx’s only general-interest bookstore, Barnes & Noble’s Co-Op-City branch, closed its doors. After grassroots efforts led by concerned Bronxites aiming to keep the store open garnered over 3,000 supporters, Bronx politicians and corporate officials at Barnes & Noble promised to reopen the store within 36 months of its closure. However, after more than half of a decade of The Bronx’s 1.4 million residents still not seeing the store reopen, it doesn’t seem that those promises will be honored without a renewed push from the community.       The Bronx has the lowest literacy rate of the five boroughs, with nearly 70 percent of third grade students in the South Bronx reading below their grade level. Many talented and legendary writers lived in and found their inspiration here in The Bronx: Edgar Allan Poe, James Baldwin, and Stan Lee just to name a few. The lack of an accessible place for Bronx residents to acquire a wide range of novels, textbooks, test prep guides, and children’s books can make it more difficult for the community to uplift and inspire the next generation of children to reach such heights.        Every borough besides The Bronx has at least one Barnes & Noble branch, with Manhattan being home to four that are currently open. There are even multiple branches in Westchester County that are equally, if not more, inconvenient for Bronx residents to commute to. Additionally, with all of the new luxury stores and fast-food restaurants constantly opening up in our borough, why not add a place that will enrich and educate the community while also bringing in dozens of jobs for our youth?         The love that The Bronx has for our Barnes & Noble has never gone away, and this is our time to use that passion for real change. Please sign and join me in demanding that Barnes & Noble reopen its previous location and bring back our only bookstore. 

On the morning of February 2rd, 2022 a 22-year old black man named Amir Locke was shot and killed during a no-knock warrent on an apartment Amir was staying in. Amir was a licensed handgun owner who was asleep on a couch in the apartment as police keyed themselves into the apartment, not announcing themselves until after they entered. Amir woke up and reached for his gun, and was shot 3 times only 9 seconds after police entered the apartment.