![]() ![]() In 1999, Shaun became the youngest Student Government President elected at Morehouse College since Dr. Shaun might be new to many of us, but he has been on this path his whole life. ![]() As a writer, he has written an astounding 1,500 articles on injustice since 2014 and gives morning commentary on the legendary Tom Joyner Morning Show heard by 6 million listeners in over 100 cities. He has now spoken in 35 states, on over 100 college campuses, in jails and prisons, and in corporate boardrooms – always calling for us to be better and do better. Moreover, he reminds us that we can take whatever we do best-whether we lobby, speak, litigate, protest, write, or more-and tilt that practice toward justice.Īs a speaker, Shaun King offers an articulate and historically grounded take on the most pressing problems of the day. He uses his platform as a journalist, now for Harvard and The Intercept, and formerly as The Senior Justice Writer at the New York Daily News, to unearth the truth beyond local media, and to organize us all in purposeful and directed ways. He’s adopted social media to rally and unite people of disparate backgrounds and has now become one of the most followed activists in the world. ![]() And that’s why King’s voice, perspective, and work are so important.Īs a magnetic element of the Black Lives Matter movement, King helps us see our present place in the larger current of American history. Racism, mass incarceration, policies that criminalize blackness in the twenty-first century-these problems won’t solve themselves. Leaders like Shaun King help us see how racism is not dead and forgotten, but merely a mutating virus, and one that manifests in different forms in every age. His dogged efforts single-handedly led to more arrests of Neo-Nazis there than that of the FBI or State Police. Distant history, but not as removed as we might think: just this past year Shaun bravely spearheaded the efforts to identify and arrest violent white supremacists who brutally attacked men and women in Charlottesville, Virginia. Signs reading “I AM A MAN.” Fire hoses, police dogs, and bloody batons. Sometimes people wonder who they might be, and what role they might play, if they were alive during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. And for this movement, journalist, humanitarian, and activist Shaun King, a columnist for The Intercept and the Writer-In-Residence at Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project, is amongst the most compelling voices: a humane and passionate advocate for justice and families, and an extremely visible fundraiser for victims of brutality and discrimination. When it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement, they’re talking specifically about human dignity for African Americans. “Justice, particularly for the oppressed and marginalized in our society, never comes without great effort and sacrifice.” In greater numbers, people are talking about real empowerment and liberation for historically disadvantaged groups. Today, there are crucial conversations rippling across North America-conversations happening on social media, on campuses, in the streets and around dinner tables. ![]()
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