Dec 26, 2014
This week on the show we are joined by Reverend Malcolm Byrd to talk about the impact of the systemic issues that leads to the events in Ferguson and New York City. We discuss how the internet has changed the face of social justice and has allowed more awareness of the broken-ness of the systems that are meant to protect us. We also discuss the issue in progressive movements of “one true way” -ism, and why utilizing all types of activism is important. Does the activism happening during this season help us find hope, even when it seems there is none?
(Note: This show was recorded on Christmas Eve.)
Reverend Byrd is a Long Island, New York native, yet he spent his formative years living in Detroit, Michigan and Gastonia, North Carolina where he completed his Secondary Education. Reverend Byrd entered the ministry in 1998 at age 14 and was licensed as an exhorter by Presiding Elder H.L. Hall at the Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church in Gastonia, NC.
Reverend Byrd attended Livingstone College, a historically black college in North Carolina where he served as a Presidential Scholar, President of the Student Government Association, President, NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and member of the Board of Trustees. Rev. Byrd is a graduate of the State University of New York, at Purchase and a graduate of the Pacific School of Religion of the Graduate Theological Union. He was an undergraduate fellow of the Fund for Theological Education.
Reverend Byrd has spent a considerable amount of his life fighting for causes aimed at assisting the plight of downtrodden and marginalized people. He is fondly regarded as the “Picketing Preacher.” He shares the sentiment of the great civil rights clergyman, The Reverend Vernon Johns, “When you see a good fight, get in it!” Reverend Byrd hopes that though his various talks, lectures, addresses, and sermons that dormant levels of consciousness will be awakened as a rose reveling its unfurled glory for the first time before the heavens.
Reverend Byrd currently lives in Hempstead, New York along with his wife, the former Dominique Jackson, alumnae of Mount Holyoke College and a professional actress/model.
Links
Rev. Byrd’s Address: Jackson Memorial AME Zion Church, 60 Peninsula Blvd, Hempstead, NY 11550
Email: alphadubois@hotmail.com