| Lammy hosts OBV Black Church leaders’ roundtable with Reverend Jesse Jackson. |
| Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Yesterday, Tottenham MP David Lammy hosted a group of 30 key Black Church leaders and campaigners at the House of Commons at Operation Black Vote’s “Ask, Seek, Knock” roundtable event.
The Rev Jesse Jackson gave the keynote speech at the seminar, calling upon the leaders to work together more closely to combat some of the difficulties facing the British Black community. Chaired by OBV’s Simon Woolley, the event was also attended and supported by Brent MP Dawn Butler and Hackney MP Diane Abbott.
The discussion focused on how best to politically mobilise the Black community, building mutual understanding of the root causes of issues such as absentee fathers, gun and gang violence, educational underachievement and under-representation in positions of power.
During his introductory speech, David said, “We all know that we in the Black community have the resolve to take these matters into our own hands. We have yet to achieve the economic power in the numbers reached by some of our African American counterparts, and we have not yet developed enough of a culture of financial philanthropy, but we until we do, we must use the networks afforded by events like these to pool our resources and come together.”
Rev Jackson, the only African American man in history to have stood for the Presidential nomination, drew on his lifelong experience combating social ills, including his recent Chicago gun shop protest. The Church leaders, campaigner groups and others exchanged contact information and details about their work, and together hope to form the basis for on-going dialogue and collaborative work between the Churches and campaign groups.
Please click here to see more images of Jessie Jackson's visit.
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