Melissa Harris-Lacewell is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, (Princeton 2004). And she is currently at work on a new book: Sister Citizen: A Text For Colored Girls Who've Considered Politics When Being Strong Wasn't Enough. Professor Harris-Lacewell is a regular on MSNBC, appearing often on The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. She is also a contributing blogger on The Nation.com.

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A native son and life-long resident of New Orleans, James Perry learned core values early in life, thanks to the up-bringing provided by his parents, James and Corlis Perry. Both career educators, the Perrys taught James and his two brothers the importance of community, service, education and social justice.

The Perry family lived in New Orleans East, where young James witnessed first hand the decline of his beloved neighborhood even before Hurricane Katrina swamped it with floodwater. His early experience and the values instilled by his parents shaped James’ ethic of community service and laid the foundation for his life’s work.

After graduating from McMain High School and then the University of New Orleans, James began working for the Preservation Resource Center (PRC), a non profit organization dedicated to preserving the diverse neighborhoods that make New Orleans unique.

While at the PRC, James learned in depth about the problems of urban blight and neighborhood disinvestment through his work in educating the public about how to acquire and rehab blighted properties. He became intimately familiar with the credit and lending challenges faced by first-time homebuyers by developing and teaching the PRC’s certified First-Time Homebuyer Training Program. His advocacy work made him a friend to dozens of neighborhood organizations stretching from Carrollton to the Lower Ninth Ward. He learned lasting lessons about coalition building and organizing in the struggle over the demolition of the St. Thomas Housing Complex and its reinvention as River Gardens.

In 2000, James became the Director of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center in Gulfport, MS, where discriminatory rental practices were denying residents access to safe, affordable housing. He put to use the leadership, managerial, and advocacy skills he had developed over the years to serve the twin causes of social justice and fair housing access in the Gulfport community, even at a time when some advocates were receiving death threats for pursuing cases against landlords embracing illegal practices.

In spite of long days commuting from New Orleans to the Gulf Coast, James enrolled in night classes at Loyola Law School to gain the legal knowledge necessary to become the most effective advocate possible for advancing community causes.

After completing his law degree in 2004, James became the Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), a private, non-profit organization created to promote equal housing opportunity. Under James’ leadership and management, GNOFHAC has tripled in size, served thousands of residents and protected their housing rights. James led the GNOFHAC in battles over other rights-oriented community issues, such as fighting for fairer payouts by the Road Home Program.

Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, James has been a strong voice and a constant presence in the city’s revitalization efforts, working tirelessly to ensure fair housing opportunities for all returning residents. Recently, on behalf of residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, James led his organization’s successful lawsuit against St. Bernard Parish, which passed an illegal ordinance mandating that landlords rent solely to blood relatives.

In recent years, James has testified before Congress six times about the critical importance of Gulf Coast recovery, a cause that he took up again in presentations to both the Democratic and Republican conventions in the summer of 2008.

James counts among his many activities former and current positions on boards such as the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Historic District Landmarks Commission, and the Louisiana Housing Alliance. He has been invited to speak about community issues by groups as diverse as Columbia Law School and the American Jewish Committee.

Finally, James is a homeowner who has struggled like many in the region to rebuild his hurricane-damaged home.

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