“A Segregated Baltimore: Reflections of 1950–1960”

When the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in 1954, James Griffin was wrapping up his military service prior to enrolling at Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, N.C.) and before continuing on to Boston’s Sargeant College for his degree in physical therapy, thereby becoming the first African-American licensed to practice in the state of Maryland. More importantly, however, he was becoming a major activist in the civil rights struggle here in Baltimore, particularly in the area of public accommodations, public education and in community organization. His efforts as an appointee to the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (1968-1974) and as chairman of Baltimore CORE (Congress of Racial Equality, 1963-69) led to major changes in the city. Other appointments included Board member of Baltimore City Model City Agency and a gubernatorial appointment as Equal Opportunity Specialist for the State of Maryland. He led demonstrations against injustice and racial segregation. He will share his recollections of this momentous period in the history of Baltimore.

James Griffin is a licensed physical therapist. He operated four offices (Griffin Associates, P.A.) in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area, and was a chartered and active member of CHARM, which provided employment and training to young African Americans looking to become therapists. An outstanding high school and college track star, he enjoys making presentations to groups on healthy eating habits and the importance of exercising. Got a tennis racket? He will meet you on the court. Visit his home: he’ll serve you his specialty – freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice. He is a member of Bethel AME Church, a life member of the NAACP, is president of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association and serves on the Board of Directors of Sojourner Douglass College. He and his wife Cardrienne P. Griffin have been married fifty-six years. They are the proud parents of four adult children, eight grandchildren and a 1-month old great-grandchild.

 

Christopher Hedges addressed the Brooklyn Ethical Society in September 2014 on the “psychosis of permanent war” and how we can change our culture to cultivate peace and justice. Discussion will follow this video presentation.

Christopher Hedges Christopher Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist specializing in international warfare, religion and politics. Hedges is also known as the best-selling author of several books including War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002) – a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction – Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009), Death of the Liberal Class (2010) and his most recent New York Times best seller, written with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012). Hedges is currently a columnist for the progressive news and commentary website Truthdig, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City, and a contributing author for OpEdNews. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for the Christian Science Monitor, NPR, the Dallas Morning News, and the New York Times, where he was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years (1990–2005). In 2002, Hedges was part of a group of eight reporters at the New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches prisoners at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. He writes a weekly column on Mondays for Truthdig and authored what the New York Times described as “a call to arms” for the first issue of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, a newspaper associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park, New York City. He is a political activist and describes himself as a socialist.

 

Both Ethical Culture and the broader tradition of Humanism in general use reason to liberate us from superstition so we can build a better world. Sometimes, however, we can get sucked into overly intellectualized debates about how many atoms fit on the head of a pin. This is why, the Taoist sage Laozi reminds us to think less and simply “be.” What would the founder of Ethical Culture, Felix Adler, think of such wisdom? In trying to answer this question, Hugh Taft-Morales relies on Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh in an attempt to keep things simple.

Hugh Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as its professional leader in 2010, the same year he was certified by the American Ethical Union as an Ethical Culture Leader. He also serves as Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia. His presence in Ethical Culture has been termed “invigorating.” Taft-Morales lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife Maureen, a Latin American Analyst with the Congressional Research Service, with whom he has three beloved children, Sean, Maya, and Justin.