Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, delivering an address on the prison industrial complex on Saturday, August 25, 2007. (Photo: Cheryl LaBash).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Media Advisory
Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire, Elected as Chairperson of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR)
DETROT--At its recent board meeting held on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR), elected Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, as the chairperson of the non-profit organization which was founded in 1980.
MCHR's Board of Directors consists of 40 people from throughout the metropolitan Detroit area. The organization has hundreds of members and its board consists of various religious, professional, labor, academic and community-based leaders who are veterans of the various civil rights and social justice movements over the last several decades.
Azikiwe, who is also a co-founder of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, joined the MCHR Board in 2005. He became the chair of the organization's film committee, which produces two festivals per year.
In 2006, Azikiwe was elected to the MCHR Executive Committee as the Vice-Chairperson. With the support of the former chair, Dr. Charles Rooney, Azikiwe was elected unanimously as chairperson of MCHR on Sept. 18.
Azikiwe in his acceptance speech pledged to work to enhance the effectiveness of MCHR as a broad-based coalition of leaders and activists from various religious denominations as well as political backgrounds.
The MCHR Board consist of many well-known personalities within the social justice movements in the Detroit metropolitan area. These individuals include: Prof. Gloria Aneb House of the University of Michigan-Dearborn; Dorothy Aldridge, a veteran civil rights activists; Jean Rooney, former faculty member at Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies; Prof. Karl Gregory, Professor Emeritus at Oakland University; Prof. Jose Cuello of Wayne State University; Detroit City Councilwoman Brenda Jones; and others.
Azikiwe will work with MCHR's Executive Director Gloria Rivera and Program Coordinator Marge Sears in carrying out the policies and programs of the organization.
Since early 2007, Azikiwe has been instrumental in the development of a strategic plan for MCHR along with a planning team consisting of other Board members. The strategic planning process has been guided by Ms. Angeline Smith of Angeline & Associates, a Detroit-based consulting firm which works extensively with non-profit organizations and public agencies.
For more information on MCHR just log on to its web site which is undergoing a major revision. http://www.mchr.org
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