Marsha Ingrao – Always Write

Eva Paterson was only a teenager when she debated Spiro Agnew on national television in 1970.  When she became an attorney she fought for Civil Rights for many underserved groups of people.  Though she grew up in a violent home, she became a champion for those whose rights were challenged at home or in society.  In the late 1970s she successfully sued the Oakland Police Department  for not coming to the aide of battered women.

“Prior to taking the helm of the Equal Justice Society in 2003, Paterson worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, thirteen of them as Executive Director. Paterson led the organization’s work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. At the Lawyers’ Committee, she was part of a broad coalition that filed the groundbreaking anti-discrimination suit against race and gender discrimination by the San Francisco Fire Department. That lawsuit successfully desegregated the department, winning new opportunities for women and minority firefighters.”  http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/about/evapaterson/ 

Paterson, though part of an historic movement in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement, keeps on producing results.  On Saturday, March 9, at the CCSS conference in Burlingame, CA, “Ms. Paterson will be joined in a panel discussion by two Dream Act student leaders, Sofia Campos and Catherine Eusebio, courageous immigrant youth who are building a new civil rights movement, risking arrest and deportation to fight for the rights of immigrant youth and their families.”  CCSS Conference Brochure

Martin Luther King Junior had a dream.  Some people living in the United States are inhibited from following their dreams because of their immigrant status as children.  “The ‘The DREAM Act is a bipartisan legislation ‒ pioneered by Sen. Orin Hatch [R-UT] andSen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] ‒ that can solve this hemorrhaging injustice in our society. Under the rigorous provisions of the DREAM Act, qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a 6 year long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service.” http://dreamact.info/  Two of these students will share their stories during the panel discussion on Saturday, March 9, 2013 in Burlingame, CA.

Eva has come full circle.   As a student she came to the spotlight during a panel discussion addressing then President Spiro Agnew, and next Saturday she will participate on a panel discussion with students who share the their own struggle for civil rights nearly 50 years later.

No matter what your politics, you will enjoy this inspiring speaker at the conference.  You will be amazed.