History Timeline
“As for me, I start from the proposition that no matter how bad things get, they can improve. The question is: How soon and to what extent? My job is to develop the next generation of leaders, who will make tomorrow better than today for the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated, and everyone connected to that community of human beings.”
— Eddie Ellis
6 DECADES OF HUMAN JUSTICE
1960’s
• CNHJH founder Eddie Ellis joins the Black Panther Party and co-founded the New York City chapter of the Black Panthers
1970’s
• Eddie is targeted by COINTELPRO and is sentenced to 25 years to life
• Eddie lives through Attica prison uprising
• The Seven Neighborhood Research Study is authored by the Green Haven Think Tank
• Eddie joins the Green Haven Think Tank
1980’s
• Prison construction booms
• Nation-wide organizing leads to the National Criminal Justice Commission Report which calls for a moratorium on prison construction
• Eddie founds the Resurrection Study Group and organizes legislative hearings inside Green Haven Prison
1990’s
• Eddie comes home from prison and founds the Community Justice Center in Harlem
• Eddie joins the Neighborhood Defenders Service
• The Prison Moratorium Project is formed by youth organizers and mentored by Eddie
2000’s
• Eddie proposes a policy think tank staffed by formerly incarcerated people
• Eddie receives a $250K grant from Open Society Institute
• Eddie creates the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions at Medgar Evers College
• Prison Moratorium project leads city, state and national campaigns and successfully stops prison expansion and shrinks the private prison industry
• Center for NuLeadership and Prison Moratorium Project merge, creating an intergenerational power house
2010’s
• Center for NuLeadership creates the Human Justice Theory of Change and and holds a public launch at 1199 with Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, and Gus Newport
• Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions is renamed to Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice and Healing (CNHJH)
• Eddie advises City of New York on the formation of Credible Messenger Programs leading to an initial investment of $10M to address gun violence
• Center for NuLeadership creates unprecendented arrest diversion program in Bed-Stuy to advance Human Justice
• Eddie passes away in 2014
2020’s
• CNHJH raises $1M to transform communities impacted by incarceration by providing Guaranteed Income, pathways to home and land ownership and building community generational wealth
• Trinity Wall Street Church hosts virtual gathering celebrating 10 year anniversary of Human Justice
• CNHJH incubates the NuLegacy Center on Earth and Human Wellness and builds partnership with Wildseed Community Farm to provide land-based healing and stewardship workshops for families impacted by incarceration