Humanity & Society

How can we say to the poor, the exploited classes, to the marginated races, to the despised, to all the minorities, to the “nonpersons”—how can we say that God is love and say all of us are, and ought to be in history, sisters and brothers? How can we say this? This is our great question.

Edwin (Eddie) Ellis is President of the Community Justice Center, Inc., an anti-crime research, education, and advocacy organization located on 125^th Street in Harlem, New York. A target of the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) for his Black Panther Party activities, Ellis served 25 years in various New York State prisons. While he was in prison, he earned a Masters degree from New York Theological Seminary, a Bachelor's from Marist College and a paralegal degree from Sullivan County Community College. Widely recognized as a writer, lecturer, and community activist, Ellis is credited with the successful public dissemination of the research findings of the Think Tank, a group of prisoners from Greenhaven Correction Facility which established that 75% of the prisoners in New York State come from seven neighborhoods in New York City. Eddie Ellis is a fellow of the Bunche Dubois Institute for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College/CUNY, serves on the Board of Directors of Center for Law and Justice in Albany, NY, is a member of the Drug Policy Task Force, The Vera Institute IRB, and the National Criminal Justice Commission. This interview took place in the offices of the Community Justice Center on August 6, 1997.