MADISON – The Madison Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will hold its first Freedom Fund Dinner on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at Engelbert Hall, 1621 10th Street in Madison, Ill. at 6 p.m. The theme for the dinner is “Rebuilding our Communities.”
The keynote speaker will be the Honorable Judge Jennifer Hightower, Third Judicial Circuit of Madison County. Judge Hightower was appointed as Associate Judge in 2015. Judge Hightower, graduate of Edwardsville High School Class of 2001, earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2005, and her J.D. from the prestigious Thomas Cooley Law School in 2009.
Most recently, Judge Hightower assisted the law firm of Simmons Hanly Conroy in hosting “Second Chance” Saturday in Venice, Illinois. Approximately 400 eligible Madison County citizens received assistance with the expungement and sealing of minor criminal records, and amnesty for the purpose of resolving outstanding traffic warrants, misdemeanor warrants and ordinance violations. The goal of the event was to provide positive, rehabilitative opportunities to the community and to remove some of the obstacles to re-entering the workforce.
Judge Hightower is a member of the Illinois Judges’ Association Public Affairs and Outreach Committee, Madison County Bar Association, and the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Committee. She also serves on the executive board of the Crisis Food Center of Alton, and the board of the Phoenix Crisis Center, member of the Upsilon Phi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Leadership Council of Madison County and Edwardsville branch of the NAACP. She resides in Glen Carbon, Illinois.
Tickets for the dinner may be purchased by contacting Bishop John Henry Williams at (618) 530-2347.
