Fit For a King Summit History

   The 13th annual Fit for a King Fair Housing Summit marked the organization's 25th anniversary and it's first summit as the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. The keynote speaker was Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson. Sessions focused on the history of segregation and racial inequality nationally and locally, as well as the housing rights of individuals with criminal justice involvement, countering NIMBY opposition to affordable housing, and taking action for healthy homes.  

The 12th annual Fit for a King conference, Building the Movement, featured community organizers, leaders, and advocates who spoke about movement building and how to take action for housing justice. Our keynote speaker was Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement.

As a movement leader, Ms. Nash shared lessons learned from her extensive community organizing history and how to apply practices from the strategy of non-violence to grow the movement for fair housing.

The 11th annual Fit for a King conference, 50 Years of Fair Housing, featured panels and sessions celebrating the achievements made in the 50 years since the Fair Housing Act was passed, and discussing the future of Fair Housing moving forward. Our keynote speaker was Bree Newsome, community organizer and activist who removed the Confederate Battle Flag from the South Carolina State House in 2015.

As a recognized and celebrated voice on the topics of injustice and racial discrimination, Bree brought to light the importance of leadership development in building and sustaining social movements.

The 10th annual Fit for a King conference, Defending the Dream: The Future of Fair Housing, featured panels and sessions to acknowledge the recent housing victories and discuss how to further advance housing justice in the coming years. Our keynote speaker was Nikole Hannah-Jones, acclaimed New York Times Magazine journalist.

Hannah-Jones has written extensively on the history of racism and inequality, school resegregation and the disarray of hundreds of desegregation orders, and the decades-long failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act.

GNOFHAC’s 9th annual Fit for a King conference, Bringing Justice Home: Fair Housing in an Era of Displacement and Growing Inequality, featured interactive discussions of strategies for expanding housing access and equal opportunity in Louisiana and addressed the intersections of housing and issues such as education, criminal justice, and climate justice.

Internationally renowned civil rights activist, Ms. Angela Davis, delivered the keynote speech.

The 8th annual, Fit for a King conference theme was Looking Back, Looking Forward: 20 Years of Fair Housing and celebrated the Center’s 20th anniversary. Our keynote speaker was the acclaimed civil right activist and leader, Julian Bond.

Beginning with his pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement, Julian Bond – an expert on diversity in the law – was on the cutting edge of social change and leadership. Legendary as the first black US vice presidential nominee and former Chairman of the NAACP, Bond continued to deliver a powerful message of equality, freedom, and justice until his death on August 15, 2015.

The 7th annual Fit for a King conference theme was Are We Winning the Struggle to End Segregation? This conference investigated the progress our country has made towards integration, the consequences of continued segregation on our communities, and how federal law and policy have been used to perpetuate segregation both historically and today. The conference closed with an interactive session about the possibility of integrated neighborhoods, how they can be sustained, and ways to advance housing choice locally as well as in the upcoming state legislative session.

The summit analyzed the state of residential racial segregation on a local and national level. Experts from around the country led breakout sessions and panel discussions examining the intersections between racial segregation and environmental justice, gentrification, education, voting rights and public policy.