Showing Up for Justice

Nita Colgate has been showing up for justice for a long time. In 1967, she volunteered to help with voter registration while visiting family in Mississippi. Back in New York City, Nita raised two children while her commitment to activism never waned – from poll watching to protesting the Vietnam War to helping disadvantaged kids learn to read. It was at a school in Harlem where she met a struggling 9-year-old Johnny Bradford, and began what would become a life-long friendship. Twenty blocks north of her home on the Upper East Side and a world apart, Johnny taught Nita a lot about empathy, she said. Some experiences with him over the years taught her a lot about racism too…