At the Appellate Division, Second Department’s Black History Month celebration in honor of Bill Thompson, Brooklyn’s first Black state senator and associate appellate justice, speakers addressed new threats to civil rights that have arisen from the country’s current political landscape.
If Thompson were alive today, he would be “appalled,” his son former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson Jr. said at the event, held on Wednesday at the Second Department’s courthouse in Brooklyn Heights.
“He would be appalled of what’s happening in this country. We’re here in Black History Month. If you blink, people are trying to erase Black history and make believe it never happened. Make believe there was no such thing as slavery,” he said during remarks.
At the event, an award bearing Thompson’s father’s namesake was presented to U.S. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Queens) and New York NAACP President L. Joy Williams.
Attendees included former Assembly Member Annette Robinson, who represented central Brooklyn in the State Assembly for 14 years and retired in 2016; Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas, First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Norman St. George, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Justice Initiatives Edwina G. Richardson and Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for the New York City Courts Adam Silvera.
The recipients of the award shared Thompson Jr.’s sentiments about their desire to push back against the Trump administration.
“Let’s not be silent as Bill Thompson talked about, let’s not be bullied,” Meeks said. “There’s some things that are going on now that this president wants to do and we may be engaged in, but if we’re silent, he will succeed. But if we are standing up and fighting in the spirit of Annette Robinson, we will win.”
Second Department Presiding Justice Hector LaSalle said the court had chosen Meeks for his support for their mission to support the efficiency of state court operations generally and of the Second Department’s efforts to increase courthouse accessibility.
LaSalle said that Williams was given the award for her civil rights advocacy and “commitment to justice for all New Yorkers.”
“Everyone is talking about fighting back, and yes, we fight that, but in the NAACP I tell people we are fighting forward because the democracy that we had even before this wasn’t as equitable,” Williams said in her remarks.
