(LOS ANGELES, CA – 6/19/2020) – Today the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) will join its National office to mark Juneteenth with the re-released a short film, “In Their Footsteps: An American Muslim Civil Rights Journey.”
[NOTE: “Juneteenth,” or “Freedom Day,” commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas; the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States. That announcement came two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, which ended slavery in the United States. The 1863 proclamation was ignored by Confederate states and it was not until the end of the war in 1865 that the order was enforced in the South.]
CAIR-LA will air the film at Noon PST on Facebook (facebook.com/cairgla).
CAIR will host a Q&A with special guests CAIR-NJ Communications Director Abdul Alim Mubarak-Rowe and Mustafa Carroll from CAIR-Texas afterward via Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Facebook Live GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational
YouTube Live GO TO: https://www.youtube.com/CAIRtv
Video: ‘In Their Footsteps: An American Muslim Civil Rights Journey’
The 21-minute film features some 30 American Muslim civil rights leaders who journeyed through Alabama to learn about the history of slavery, lynching, segregation, and about present-day racial injustice.
During the journey, the Muslim leaders attended the inauguration of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery and learned from experts at the historic 16th Street Baptist church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Civil Rights Memorial.
SEE: 30 CAIR Leaders to Attend Inauguration of Lynching Memorial in Alabama
CAIR’s film offers deeply personal and emotional reflections from American Muslims — including African American Muslims — who lived through segregation and Jim Crow laws, and for whom the journey brought back memories from their own lives.
The film was produced by True Intent Productions and CAIR.
CAIR-LA is Southern California’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice and empower American Muslims.
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CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Eugene W. Fields, 714-851-4851 or efields@cair.com