GALLOWAY, N.J. — On Tuesday, October 7, students, faculty, and community affiliates gathered at Stockton’s Performing Arts Center to celebrate the 22nd annual Fannie Lou Hamer Human and Civil Rights Symposium hosted by the Unified Black Students Society (UBSS). Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, attended as the event’s keynote speaker,.

Fannie Lou Hamer, the activist whom Stockton named the Atlantic City campus’ Event Room after, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi on October 6, 1917. Hamer joined her parents in sharecropping cotton by age six and left school for full-time work just six years later. In 1961, Hamer was rendered sterilized when a white doctor performed a nonconsensual hysterectomy. That same summer, she began attending civil rights meetings with Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer, James Forman. By 1962, Hamer was an SNCC organizer herself. Hamer continued to advocate tirelessly for Black autonomy and voting rights until her untimely death on March 14, 1977.

“We are the only institution that has been lifting up the name of Fannie Lou Hamer for this long in the name of civil rights and social justice,” announced the moderator, Dr. Donnetrice C. Allison. She serves as Stockton’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, a Professor of Communication Studies and Africana Studies. Allison prefaced the upcoming performances by stating, “Something else that we have been doing over these 22 years has been making sure to incorporate the arts in this program. Fannie Lou Hamer loved to sing. There’s a very, very important history with the Black arts movement and how that has been a part of speaking up and speaking out and using the arts as a way to do that.” 

Led by music professor Dr. Beverly Vaughn, the Freedom Singers opened with a selection of Hamer’s favorite songs. Freedom Singers member, Lilly Nickens, captured the audience with a moving rendition of the Black National Anthem. Kiana Bryan, psychology major, Africana studies minor, and owner of Black Essence Performing Artists dance company, followed with a ballet performance of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.” 

Following these exemplary performances, the crowd was addressed by University President, Joe Bertolino: “As you know, this tradition continues to remind us of the power of courage, conviction, and community. And this year’s theme—good trouble, the fight to preserve our history and democracy-could not be timelier.” He continued, “We gather each year to honor the extraordinary legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman who refused to accept injustice as normal, who believed that ordinary people could do extraordinary things when they acted with faith and courage. She reminds us that democracy is not guaranteed, but that it must be nurtured, protected, and when necessary, fought for”.

UBSS Vice President, Shane Moore, echoed these sentiments, noting, “Today is to reflect on our ongoing pursuit of justice and equality. Let us also pay tribute to the unwavering courage and sacrifices of our ancestors. Their tireless efforts gave the way for our self determination, our right to vote, and the freedoms that we cherish.”

This notion paying homage to the ancestors was exemplified by the next presentation in which the keynote speaker’s speech was preceded by a dramatized performance of his father, Amiri Baraka’s, poem, “Wise I.” School of Health Sciences Assistant Dean, Dr. Lee Bryant, orated the poem over music while Christina Noble, who earned her master’s degree in American Studies from Stockton in 2024, performed a dance.

Atlantic City Councilman, Kaleem Shabazz, then introduced the keynote speaker: “I can tell you that he is the head of many governmental organizations, but you can look that up for yourself. I can tell you he’s entering his fourth terms, elected as the mayor of the largest city in the state of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey. But I think I wanted to tell you in introducing him to you that he has married social justice, civil rights, and community empowerment, with business development.”

Shabazz, who also serves as president of the Atlantic City NAACP, continued by saying, “For those people who think that you have to be an advocate and you can’t have economic development and economic empowerment, Ras Baraka proves that wrong. For those people who say you have to be in government and you can only be an advocate for business development and not for social justice and civil rights, Ras Baraka has proved that wrong.”

However, Baraka’s fight for unanimous civil protection has not come without contest. On May 9, 2025, he was taken into Homeland Security custody and charged with trespassing at an immigration detention facility known as Delaney Hall. On June 3, 2025 Baraka pursued a lawsuit against New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, Alina Habba, for “false arrest and malicious prosecution”, according to an Associated Press news release.

Baraka’s address seems to recall such action historically taking place against others standing up in opposition of injustice as he recounted a story of Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested and his jailers writing his prison i.d. number in King’s only possession: a bible. He states, “That Bible that King was arrested with lived past Jim Crow. Lived past housing segregation. Lived past the Vietnam War. Lived past his assassination and found its way to the White House to swear in the most powerful black man in the world, Barack Obama, to become the President of the United States. God is real.”

‘The struggle for democracy has always been a protracted and ongoing one. And we have always been at the center of the fight for justice, for democracy, for history is actually a fight for the soul of this country” Baraka asserts before reminding the symposium of the importance of community collaboration and involvement in saying, “So the secret to our future lies in our brothers and sisters hearts, and their minds and their spirit. And when we destroy each other, we destroy our ability, our very opportunity to survive. Our history here is our hope, our fight, our humanity, is the reason we still believe. The reason we still vote, even when we feel like there’s nothing to vote for.”

Leading up to the upcoming Election Day on Tuesday November 4, 2025, Stockton’s American Democracy Project is an available resource to ensure proper registration and provide polling information.