On June 20, 2020, The Evans Exoneration Project (TEEP) sponsored a special virtual event celebrating Juneteenth. We started off with a prayer by Pastor Jho Roni and our very own Shelly Evans performed Lift Every Voice and Sing.

We introduced our amazing team from TEEP and had our very own Attorney Demitrus Evans do a presentation talk about The International Slave Trade and trade in Africa today. Shelly spoke about the history of Juneteenth and sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” The National Negto Anthem.

Our first panel was called Free-ish since 1865 and our special guest, Vickie Cassanova Willis spoke about black struggles, Black Lives Matter, and the United Nations. We had scheduled a voice call with former inmate Lamont Needum, but we unfortunately couldn’t get a hold of him.

Our second panel was about Employment Discrimination, with Roberto Clack and Sandy Moreno from the Warehouse Workers for Justice. They spoke on the issues of employers like Walmart began rehiring their employees by adding background checks which caused a majority of black and brown people to be rejected due to past crimes.

Our third panel was about Foreclosure Issues. Our speaker, Matt Hulstein, Executive Director of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, spoke on federal protections for those who can’t pay their mortgages due to COVID-19. He gave information on how the law doesn’t specify who’s the borrower (some cases the owner passes away and the loan balance is handed to the children) and who to reach out for questions involving bill payments during the pandemic.

When our video call ended on Zoom, we started live-streaming on our Facebook and Instagram pages to show off our TEEP office.

In the first room, it consisted of African and African American history art. Some were part of Attorney Evans’ personal collection. Our administrative assistant, Anthea Enbah played the piano. In the second room, it consisted of showing the life of a jail cell. We also presented some images involving Bradford v. City of Chicago. In the third room, we had an arts and crafts section where we designed our own protest posters.

Our event was a success and everyone learned something new about Juneteenth, hardships that revolve around the black community, workplace discrimination, and financial difficulties amid a pandemic

TEEP is pleased with hosting our first virtual event. As you may know, we have re-opened our office and are continuing to be hard at work our cases.

Unfortunately, we have over 40 cases that have developed during the pandemic and we need your help. If you would like to view our social media pages and learn how to help us, go to our Linktree:

https://linktr.ee/teep

Our presentation will be available again soon!