The Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the NAACP invites you to attend a Zoom Panel on proposed Massachusetts legislation, “An Act to Reform Police Standards and Shift Resources to Build a More Equitable, Fair and Just Commonwealth That Values Black Lives and Communities of Color,” to be held on Monday, August 17, 2020, from 6:30PM to 8:00 PM.
The panelists are as follows:
- Beverly Williams, Co-Chair of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization
- LaSella Hall, Ph.D., NAACP New England Area Conference Youth and College Advisor President of the New Bedford Branch of the NAACP
- Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, Pastor Bethel AME Boston, GBIO Strategy Team
- Erik Blake, President of the Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the NAACP, Police Chief Oak Bluffs, MA
- Moderator – Arthur Hardy-Doubleday, Esq, Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the NAACP Executive Committee
Zoom Meeting details
Topic: NAACP Policing Legislative Panel
Time: Aug 17, 2020 06:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3059614484
Meeting ID: 305 961 4484
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Meeting ID: 305 961 4484
Panelist biographies
Beverly Williams is a native Bostonian and retired educator who served 27 years in the Boston Public Schools. Now Co-Chair of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) since 2019, she leads 40 faith-based institutions in shaping a social justice agenda for the common good.
As former Chair of the GBIO Criminal Justice Reform Team, Beverly led successful campaigns to reduce the rate and harm of incarceration. Her work broadened GBIO’s internal base of leaders and led to many strong partnerships, including the ACLU and the Working Group for Criminal Justice Reform.
In 2018, Ms. Williams was awarded The Community Champion Award by the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. In 2019, she was honored to serve as part of Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins’ Transition Team. She is an active member of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts, a wife and mother of two adult sons.
LaSella L. Hall, Ph.D. serves at the NAACP New England Area Conference Youth and College Advisor. The New England Area Conference supports units throughout the New England States. Since being elected to the position of New England Area Conference Youth and College Advisor, he has assisted in chartering NAACP college chapters in Massachusetts, such as UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and UMass Boston, as well as, assisted in reactivating college chapters at Providence College and Brown University in Rhode Island.
In addition to his work with the New England Area Conferences, Dr. Hall serves at Branch President for the NAACP New Bedford Branch, located in New Bedford, Massachusetts. During his tenure, the branch has awarded several scholarships to graduating high school seniors and college graduates. He continues to increase funding by growing attendance at the annual Freedom Fund Breakfast, while championing several local community causes, such as addressing inequities in the New Bedford Public School System, incarceration of immigrants at the Bristol County House of Corrections, and combating state sanctioned violence against communities of color.
Dr. Hall holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in History with a minor in Leadership and Global Understanding from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Business Administration concentrating in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix-Atlanta Campus. In May 2020, he received his Ph.D. in Humanities and African American Studies with a minor in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, M.D., M.A. was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest son of a Baptist preacher and a schoolteacher. He was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, and went on to graduate from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at the New England Deaconess Hospital (Boston, MA), and joined the Emergency Medicine staff at the Cape Cod Hospital (Hyannis, MA).
Pastor Hammond accepted the call to the preaching ministry in 1976, and completed his Master of Arts degree in the Study of Religion (Christian and Medical Ethics) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1982. In 1988 he was called to be the founder and pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts.
Pastor Hammond has a long history of involvement with youth and community activities. He is Chairman and Co-Founder of the Ten Point Coalition—an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders working to mobilize the greater Boston community around issues affecting high-risk youth; Board Chair of Bethel’s Generation Excel program; Executive Committee Member of the Black Ministerial Alliance; Chair of the Boston Opportunity Agenda; Chair of the Roxbury Community College Foundation; a member of the Strategy Team for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization; a member of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission; and a trustee of the Yawkey Foundation, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and the Math and Technology Public Charter High (MATCH) School. He is a former chairman of the Boston Foundation. He continues to work in local and district youth activities in the AME Church.
Pastor Hammond is the author of several papers and articles on a range of issues, including academic achievement, diversity, and violence prevention. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is also the recipient of numerous honors, including honorary doctorates from Boston University, Cambridge College, the University of Massachusetts – Boston, Lesley College, Northeastern University, Boston College, Emmanuel College, Notre Dame University, AME University (Monrovia, Liberia), William James College and New England Law – Boston.
He is the proud husband of the Rev. Dr. Gloria White-Hammond, a pediatrician and co-pastor to whom he has been happily married since 1973; the blessed father of two daughters, Mariama and Adiya, and father- in-law to Turahn Dorsey; and the proud grandfather of Ella. He counts as his greatest blessing the love of a God, who has made it possible for him to accomplish and receive more than he could have ever thought or asked.
Chief Erik G. Blake started his law enforcement career in the summer of 1987 as a parking and traffic officer for the Town of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. While attending college, he continued working for the Oak Bluffs Police Department until being offered a position as a fulltime officer. Chief Blake attended the fulltime academy in Barnstable, Massachusetts, graduating in December 1988. As an officer, he worked mostly the midnight shift and served as the Department’s firearms instructor and field training officer. Chief Blake was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in July of 2000, and served as the midnight Sergeant, training coordinator and problem solving instructor among other duties. Chief Blake was promoted to senior Sergeant in 2001 and, along with the above-referenced duties, took on the task of accreditation manager and second in command of the Department. In 2002, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and on January 13, 2003 (the same day the Department achieved statewide Certification), he was sworn in as Chief of the Oak Bluffs Police Department, a position he holds to this day.
Chief Blake proudly served on the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Civil Rights Committee and the IACP Community Policing Committee for over 12 years. He currently serves on the IACP’s Group 1 Executive Committee, and served as President of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association in 2014 as well as President of the Southeastern Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association in 2008. Chief Blake is the current President of the Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the NAACP, and speaks regularly on police/community relations, as well as spearheading several community problem solving sessions. He holds a B.S degree in criminal justice from Western New England College.
Attorney Arthur Hardy-Doubleday is a 2003 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a double major in American Studies and Educational Studies, and received a joint JD/MBA degree from
Suffolk University in 2011. Attorney Hardy-Doubleday has passion for empowering people and communities, and has organized communities in Hartford, Connecticut, to address various issues including housing, youth development, and workforce development. He has also worked on public policy issues at MassHousing, and redevelopment of Cambridge Housing Authority’s existing portfolio of affordable housing stock.
Presently, Attorney Hardy-Doubleday practices at Doubleday Law, working on a variety of social justice issues around housing, employment, and discrimination issues. He successfully argued the Davis v
Comerford case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which set a standard in Massachusetts for landlord-tenant use and occupancy orders. He also serves on the board of the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, and on the executive committee of the Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the NAACP. Attorney Hardy-Doubleday was selected and served as an official delegate for the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP’s delegation to the 2018, 2019, and 2020 National NAACP conventions.
An avid sailor, Mr. Hardy-Doubleday crewed aboard Freedom Schooner Amistad during her East Coast
