The Chattanooga-Hamilton County NAACP will host the 6th Annual Criminal Justice Seminar on Saturday June 8, at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Imperial Ballroom. This years event, Let the Dreams Live!, is striving to shed light on how legal issues, social challenges, and advents in the laws affect the social welfare, upward mobility, and life sustaining options of average everyday citizens, officials said.
Featured topics and presentations on this year will include youth and adult oriented seminar tracks. Youth presentations will be led by Rosalyn L. Rice, southeast regional coordinator for the Tennessee Commission of Children and Youth, who will discuss children's advocacy, juvenile justice, and conflict resolution strategies; Camilla Bibbs Lee, community consultant Hamilton County Coalition will speak on breaking cycles of dependency, intervention, prevention, and community collaboration. Adult seminar tracks will feature Mark Jones of Legal Shield who will discuss identity theft; Rev. Tim Sykes, 2nd Amendment and evolving gun laws; Chattanooga State Deputy Police Chief Curtis Greene, neighborhood safety and eliminating black on black crime; Tom Castelli, Tennessee ACLU, national prison project and inmates rights.
This year's event will be headlined by Vincent Southerland, senior counsel for the National NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, who will be bringing the keynote address for the occasion. Other seminar highlights will include the presenting of the 3rd Annual Thurgood Marshall "Freedom and Justice Advocate of the Year Award" to the Rev. Paul A. McDaniel, and a “Stop the Funerals, Stop the Violence” pledge led by Rev. Kenneth Love of St. Paul AME Church.
This event is free and open to the public. For best registration RSVP at chattanooganaacp@comcast.net, or by calling 267-5637. For further information contact the branch secretary Eric A.Atkins, seminar coordinator, at 320-8598, or atkinse@hotmail.com.