Building Power in Our Communities
The mission of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, CUNY (CLSJ) is to address social justice issues by providing quality legal advocacy, conducting community education campaigns, facilitating research, and building organizing capacity on behalf of traditionally disenfranchised communities. CLSJ envisions a civically educated and engaged electorate that consistently builds political power to marshal the representation and resources necessary for its communities to thrive.
CLSJ sponsors advocacy projects and impact litigation to protect and advance voting rights and education equity, fight for police reform, and an end to racial violence. Because of its unique combination of research, public policy, advocacy, and litigation from a community-based and culturally responsive perspective, CLSJ is a focal point for progressive activity.
Our Roots
One of many responses to this brutality came from a group of activists attorneys: Michael Warren, Alton Maddox, C. Vernon Mason and CLSJ Founding Executive Director Esmeralda Simmons; the Revs. Herbert Daughtry and Timothy Mitchell and Father Lawrence Lucas; and community activists like Dave Walker and Jitu Weusi. They agreed to develop an institution committed to the lawful resistance of police brutality and advocated for its creation. Assemblyman Roger Green, along with his then chief of staff, Adeyemi Bandele, provided the initial funds from the New York state budget which made the Center for Law and Social Justice a reality in 1986.
Today, the struggle for fair representation and equitable community investment continues. In addition to fighting in the courts, CLSJ continues to advocate for police reform and an end to racial violence, to protect voting rights and secure an equitable education for New Yorkers in our communities.
Our Team
Since its inception, the Center’s staff has consisted of activists/professionals from all walks of life. Their blend is unique in that they embodied the spirit and aspiration of the people we serve. CLSJ is a unit in the School of Professional and Community Development at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.
Meet Our Team Members
Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq. serves as Executive Director at the Center for Law and Social Justice. She is an activist and attorney with a long-standing commitment to racial and social justice. Ms. Daniel Favors earned her J.D. from New York University, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern public interest scholar. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BA in African and African American Studies, with a Minor in Spanish Language.
Ms. Daniel Favors started her legal career as an attorney in the New York offices of Proskauer Rose LLP and Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP. She also served as a federal court law clerk in the chambers of the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She later founded Daniel Favors Law PLLC, a law firm that focused on economic and racial justice.
Before completing law school, Ms. Daniel Favors co-founded Sankofa Community Empowerment, Inc., a non-profit organization designed to educate and empower communities of African descent. She later co-founded Breaking the Cycle Consulting Services LLC, which specializes in creating comprehensive professional development for educators, youth education programs and family engagement workshops designed to address the crisis in urban education through the use of culturally responsive teaching. Ms. Daniel Favors hosts the Lurie Daniel Favors Show on Sirius XM’s Urban View Network.
Ms. Daniel Favors is a contributing author to The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement. She has also penned Afro State of Mind: Memories of a Nappy Headed Black Girl, a coming of age story about a Black girl fighting to find her place in a world where her hair texture and skin color did not fit the accepted beauty standard. Through an examination of the history of African textured hair and racism, Ms. Daniel Favors identifies Black hair, identity, skin color and self-esteem as areas that are ripe with potential for personal and political power.
Ms. Daniel Favors adheres to the West African principle of sankofa and believes one must use the past in order to understand the present and build for a brighter future. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. You can follow her on Twitter; Instagram; or Facebook.
Laura Harding, Esq. is a seasoned attorney, advocate, and strategist dedicated to advancing equity, education, and justice. She serves as the Managing Attorney of the Esmeralda Simmons Pre-Law Preparatory Program (ESPLP) at the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College (CUNY), where she prepares aspiring law students to become justice-driven leaders through rigorous preparation, mentorship, and advocacy.
Ms. Harding is also the Founder and CEO of Harding Strategies & Consulting, LLC, a firm that partners with mission-driven organizations to build capacity, strengthen leadership, and achieve measurable community impact. Her expertise spans strategic planning, fundraising, program development, and equity-centered organizational growth. In this role, she works with nonprofits
to advance fair, affordable, and inclusive housing and educational equity.
An accomplished leader in civil rights and education, Ms. Harding previously served as President of ERASE Racism, a New York–based nonprofit combatting structural racism in housing and public education. Her extensive public service includes leadership roles within the District of Columbia Public Schools, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (Washington, DC), and the New York City Department of Education, where she advanced initiatives in access, inclusion, equity, youth development, and student safety.
Ms. Harding started her career in the legal field as a forensic social worker with The Bronx Defenders and the Juvenile Rights Division of the Brooklyn Legal Aid Society. As an attorney, she served as a clerk in the Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term, followed by a role as a staff attorney with Legal Services New York, focusing on tenants’ rights.
A proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she earned degrees from Adelphi University, the University of Chicago, and Howard University School of Law.
Lyndon Philbert brings over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector. As Administrative Assistant, he is a committed community advocate focused on creating positive change. With an emphasis on empowerment and community building, he works to make a lasting impact through every initiative he supports. Mr. Philbert recieved a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Outside of his work in advocacy, Lyndon has spent the past eight years as a portrait photographer. Here he finds joy in capturing the stories, identities, and essence of individuals through his lens.
Roger Wareham is a human rights lawyer and a political activist.
He was a lead attorney in the historic lawsuits filed in the United States Federal District Courts in 2002 suing private corporations for reparations due the descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States. He was co-counsel representing three of the 5 young Black and Latino men who were exonerated and successfully sued New York City for their wrongful conviction in the Central Park Jogger case of 1989. He was co-counsel of the legal team that went to Federal court to defeat former New York City Mayor Giuliani’s attempt to prevent the convening of the Million Youth Marches in 1998 and 1999 and the October 22nd Coalition Against Brutality March (October 1998). He has also represented Black political prisoners (including Sekou Odinga, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Jihad Abdul Mumit) in various federal lawsuits around the country. In 2009, he was a member of an international fact-finding commission which investigated the crisis in Honduras resulting from the June 2009 coup against President Manuel Zelaya. In June 2012 and again in September 2014, he led a delegation of the Pan African Solidarity Hague Committee which presented a petition to the International Criminal Court charging NATO members with war crimes and crimes against humanity in their interventions in Libya, Haiti and Cote d’Ivoire.
Roger has been a regular participant at the United Nations’ since 1989. Over that time he has annually presented evidence of human rights violations facing people of color in the United States and other parts of the world at assemblies of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (formerly the Commission on Human Rights) and its other bodies that meet in Geneva, Switzerland.
His work was instrumental in having Mr. Maurice Glele, the first U.N. Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance; conduct the first U.N. investigation of the United States in history. He also helped bring Mr. Bacre Wali Ndiaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on ExtraJudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Execution to investigate the U.S. and to hold his New York area public hearing at Medgar Evers College at the invitation of the Center for Law and Social Justice.
Mr. Wareham was an active organizer of and a leading participant in the United Nations’ World Conference against Racism held from August 30 – September 7, 2001 in Durban, South Africa. This historic World Conference produced the first international declaration that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery were crimes against humanity for which the victims’ descendants were due reparations.
Roger was one of the Center for Law and Social Justice’s original staff members when it opened in 1986 where he focused on police brutality and misconduct and set up a city-wide police monitoring hotline. He has taught undergraduate courses on law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the College of New Rochelle, School of New Resources.
Roger earned his B.A. from Harvard University with a degree in Afro-American Studies. He then earned his J.D. from Columbia University Law School. He is admitted to the New York State Bar and the Southern and Eastern Federal District Courts of New York. He is a longtime member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild.
Roger has made numerous television appearances including news programs on NBC, CBS, BET, ABC, CNN, Court TV, New York 1, Fox, BBC, PBS, Press-TV and others. He has been quoted in the New York Times, New York Amsterdam News, Washington Post, New York Daily News, Daily Challenge, Our Times Press, and in several international publications.
Abbreviated summary of achievements:
- Contributing Essayist to “Should America Pay: Slavery and the Raging Debate Over Reparations,” Ed. by Dr. Raymond Winbush, Harper Collins, 2003
- International Observer at Zimbabwe Parliamentary Elections 2005, 2008, 2018.
- Active participant in and organizer of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa (30 August – 7 September 2001)
- Witness at a hearing on the World Conference Against Racism held by the S. House of Representatives (2001)
- Organized meetings across the S. on the World Conference (Washington, NY, Chicago)
- Attended South Africa’s National Conference on Racism (Johannesburg, SA, 2000)
- Presented at the Americas Regional Preparatory Committee for the WCAR (Santiago, Chile, 2000)
- Instrumental in having Mr. Maurice Glele, first U.N. Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance conduct an investigation of the U.S. Glele’s 1995 report was one of the first U.N. documents to criticize the United States for its human rights violations
- Organized New York State meeting for Mr. Doudou Diene, second U.N. Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, during his 2008 investigation of United States.
- Presented at the African Regional PrepCom for the 2009 Review of the World Conference against Racism (Abuja, Nigeria, August 2008)
- Presented at the 2009 Review of the World Conference Against Racism (Geneva, April 2009)
- Member of International Fact-Finding Commission (American Association of Jurists, National Lawyers Guild, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Association Against Torture) on Crisis caused by June 2009 coup d’etat in Honduras
- Presented at official UN opening of International Year for People of African Descent (New York, December 2010)
- Regular participant in meetings of United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.
- Presented at first meeting of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (Sept. 2013, St. Vincent & Grenadines)
- Presented at Regional Meeting of review of the UN International Year for People of African Descent (Geneva, 2017)
- Presented at Venezuela International Conference on Reparations May 2018.
POLICY ARCHITECT | CAMPAIGN | STRATEGIST | LAWYER
Alexis R. Posey, Esq. is a visionary policy executive and seasoned strategist with nearly 15 years of experience advancing racial, economic, and health equity at the intersection of culture, politics, and justice.
In addition to her work as an economic justice advocate at the Center for Law and Social Justice, she also serves as the Chief Campaigns Officer at the Center for Cultural Power and Cultural Engagement Lab (c4). A lifelong advocate for social justice, Alexis brings a bold, systems level approach to dismantling institutional inequities.
Her work spans sectors and geographies, from advancing medical cannabis reform in New York State to pioneering local reparative policies, and driving multi million-dollar investments into historically excluded communities.
Whether in City Hall, the Capitol, or community spaces, Alexis centers lived experience, justice, and collective power. A proud native of Mount Vernon, NY, her leadership continues to shape policies and movements that are inclusive, resilient, and transformation.
Our Past and Present Interns
