Join us on the 68th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a fireside chat with Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr. and Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, as we consider the relationship of Jewish values to the establishment and defense of civil liberties, and present the annual Howard I. Friedman Memorial Graduate Essay Prize to PhD candidate Erin Faigin. 

Inspired by the Skirball’s current exhibition This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, both this year’s winning essay and lecture explore the relationship between Black and Jewish communities.

Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr.—Dr. Lafayette co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. He was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement (1960), the Freedom Riders (1961), the Alabama Voter Registration Project (1962), and the Selma Movement (1962–1965). Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. appointed him the National Program Administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and National Coordinator of the 1968 Poor Peoples' campaign (1968). Following the assassination of Dr. King, Dr. Lafayette received his Master's in Education from Harvard University and his ordination from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, an institution he would return to two decades later as President. Dr. Lafayette also held academic deanships and directorships at Gustavus Adolphus College, Alabama State University, the University of Rhode Island, and Emory University. Dr. Lafayette remains the preeminent American scholar and teacher of nonviolence studies.

Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky—Katy Yaroslavsky serves as Councilwoman for Los Angeles’ Fifth City Council District, representing neighborhoods and communities she has been a part of nearly her entire life. Elected in 2022, Councilwoman Yaroslavsky, currently serves as Chair of the City Council’s Energy & Environment committee, Vice-Chair of the Ad Hoc Olympics committee, and is a member of the Budget & Finance, Planning & Land Use Management, and Transportation committees. In March 2023, Mayor Karen Bass appointed Councilwoman Yaroslavsky to serve on the LA Metro Board of Directors.