FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 16, 2021

“Days for all People” brings more than 400 Virginians together to advocate justice:                   Virginia Interfaith Center’s Week of Lobbying and Education Starts Monday

RICHMOND – On Monday, January 18, 2021, at 9:00 am, “Days for all People” will kick off a week of keynote speakers, meetings with legislators (on Zoom), and exciting policy and activism workshops. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s annual lobbying day has evolved into a week of activities. On Thursday, Jan. 21, at 9 am, the keynote speaker is Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun who has been fighting for decades to abolish the death penalty, and author of “Dead Man Walking.”

The Virginia Interfaith Center will advocate economic, racial, social, and environmental justice issues in the 2021 General Assembly (link to fact sheets) including: abolish the death penalty in Virginia, paid sick days for workers, minimum wage for farmworkers, water as a human right, equitably modernize public transit, and prenatal care for all mothers.

RESOURCES:
Link to info. and schedule
Link to speaker bios
Fact sheet on the death penalty
Journalists or public officials interested in attending any of the sessions or workshops, please contact: Roberta@virginiainterfaithcenter.org.

  • Monday, Jan. 18:
    9:00 am Keynote: Dr. Corey D. B. Walker is Professor of the Humanities at Wake Forest University and author of “A Noble Fight – African American Freemasonry and the Struggle for Democracy in America”.

All day: Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Participants are encouraged to participate in a local community service activity or event.

  • Tuesday, Jan. 19:
    9:00 am Remarks: Governor Ralph Northam

10am – 1pm: Legislative Visits with state Senators and Delegates for all registrants
1:30 – 4pm: workshops

  • Wednesday, Jan. 20:
    9:00 am Keynote: Baldemar Velasquez, an American labor union activist who co-founded and is president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO.

    10am – 1pm: Legislative Visits with state Senators and Delegates for all registrants

1:30 – 4pm: workshops

 

  • Thursday, Jan. 21:
    9:00 am Keynote: Sister Helen Prejean is a Catholic nun and anti-death-penalty activist and author of “Dead Man Walking” (best-selling book turned into a feature film).

    10am – 1pm: Legislative Visits with state Senators and Delegates for all registrants
    1:30 – 4pm: workshops

 

  • Friday, Jan. 22:
    12:00pm: Prayer Vigils to call on legislators to abolish the death penalty in Virginia.     Locations: Richmond, Alexandria, Tidewater, Danville, Roanoke

 

Modern-day death penalty is birthed out of Virginia’s history of slavery, lynching and Jim Crow segregation. As we prepare to support legislation to abolish the death penalty, VICPP is organizing prayer vigils throughout the state at one of five regional locations, or at lynching sites across Virginia. These vigils are part of VICPP’s campaign to abolish the death penalty in Virginia. Register to attend one of our five regional prayer vigils here: tinyurl.com/nodp2021 (space is limited due to COVID-19). VICPP has prepared prayer litanies for each region of the Commonwealth, with lists of the names of the individuals whose lives were lost in a lynching in that respective region.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Roberta Oster
Communications Director
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy
roberta@virginiainterfaithcenter.org
804-615-4192

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The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy advocates economic, racial, social, and environmental justice in Virginia’s policies and practices through education, prayer, and action. 

VICPP is a non-partisan coalition of more than 750 faith communities working for a more just society.