Archive

Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman, Jr. talks about his new book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, with University of Baltimore Law School Dean Ron Weich, U.S. Court of Appeals Senior Judge Andre M. Davis, and University of Baltimore Law School Professor Odeana Neal. As Forman describes, the first […]

How can a thorough understanding of the African-American-led freedom movement of the 1950s and 60s inform those looking to create a new sustaining civil rights movement to defend communities threatened by new federal and local policies? Eminent historian Taylor Branch, author of the seminal trilogy America in the King Years and a member of OSI-Batlimore’s […]

OSI-Baltimore and the Baltimore City Office of the Public Defender present a FREE screening and discussion of Ava DuVernay’s landmark documentary “13th,” which looks at racial disparities in the criminal justice system as an ongoing form of slavery (officially outlawed by the 13th Amendment), as part of OSI’s Talking About Race series. After the screening, […]

The recent mass shooting in Orlando has sparked a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry, which had already been soaring as a result of the hateful rhetoric of the current election season. To help discuss ways to reverse the trend, we talk with Deepa Iyer, senior fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion and author of “We […]

June 7, 2016 at 7:00 p.m., at Turpin-Lamb Theatre at Morgan State University’s Murphy Fine Arts Center (directions and parking info) In his recent book, “Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics,” Johns Hopkins University political science professor Lester Spence charts the negative effects of the capitalist “hustle harder” mentality on African-American […]

Elizabeth Nix, professor of legal, ethical and historical studies at the University of Baltimore, will bring examples of structural racism and white privilege to light by talking about the history of Baltimore and how that history has resulted in discriminatory patterns and policies and segregation in Baltimore.

Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, will talk about structural changes in the job market that have increased the number of day laborers, especially among immigrants and people of color.

Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange, and Stacey Patton, reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, will talk about how dehumanizing media coverage can reinforce bias and negatively impact Black communities.

Bryan Stevenson, one of the country’s most visionary legal thinkers and social justice advocates, will talk about his new book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

Join us for a screening of Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity, a film that explores the difficulty of talking about race in a meaningful way, and a community dialogue with filmmaker and racial justice educator Shakti Butler.