(Long Island, NY) Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory was a guest speaker at the Black History Month Celebration of the Suffolk County Court System in collaboration with the Long Island Amistad Black Bar Association on Thursday, Feb.11 at the John P. Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip.
“I was honored to receive the invitation to speak at this important Black History Month Celebration,” said Presiding Officer Gregory. “The Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association does great work to assist attorneys and law students of color across all of Long Island. Their assistance helps not only those attorneys and law students of color but also the entire Long Island community.”
Hon. William G. Ford 2016 Recipient of the Marquette Floyd Award, holding the plaque he was awarded. Left to right are: HonToni Bean, District Court Judge; DuWayne Gregory, Presiding Officer, Suffolk County Legislature; Hon. C Randall Hinrichs, District Administrative Judge; Hon. William G. Ford; Valerie Cartwright Brookhaven Councilwoman; Donna England, Esq. President Suffolk County Bar Association; Hon. Judge Joseph; Hon. Derrick Roberson; and Maxine Broderick, Esq., President Amistad LI Black Bar Association. Photo Credit: Suffolk County.
“I am honored that DuWayne Gregory agreed to speak at our Black History Celebration,” said District Administrative Judge C. Randall Hinrichs, who invited the Presiding Officer. “We were very appreciative that the Presiding Officer took time out of his very busy schedule to join us for this celebration.”
The 2016 Black History Month Celebration theme was “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of American Memories.” At the event, the Honorable William G. Ford was honored with the second annual Honorable Marquette L. Floyd Achievement Award.
The Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association was founded in 1996. Formerly, the organization was known as the Amistad Suffolk Black Bar Association before the organization expanded to both Nassau and Suffolk.
Amistad was created to foster community, professional development, and growth among attorneys of color in the Long Island area. As J. Stewart Moore, one of Amistad’s founding members and its most-recent past president, has said, “Amistad is all about history.” This is demonstrated even in the organization’s name.
Amistad seeks to continue the tradition of providing opportunities for networking, leadership, and professional growth to attorneys in the practice of law who work and/or live on Long Island.
The organization actively provides supportive environments for law students, judges, and attorneys of color in all walks of the profession. Amistad includes among its members judges, prosecutors and lawyers in private practice and in the public service.
Amistad was the name of the 1839 Spanish ship whose passengers were so famously memorialized in Steven Spielberg’s movie of the same name. In 1841, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Africans aboard the Amistad had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and thus the Court ordered them freed. The Amistad survivors returned to Africa in 1842.
