On Thursday, keynote speaker Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald, Children's Defense Funds Southern Regional Office director, spoke during the opening session of the Arkansas Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline Summit.
More than 140 concerned professionals, community volunteers and others packed the Doubletree in downtown Little Rock as the Arkansas Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline Summit got underway.
Dr. I. J. Routen, on piano, and Marquis Hunt wowed the Arkansas Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline Summit crowd during lunch with an original piece titled "Fragile." Routen, Little Rock School District Elementary Fine Arts director, wrote the piece.
ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Rita Sklar was instrumental in developing this year's Arkansas Cradle-to-Prison Summit theme, Justice for Juveniles. During the opening session, Sklar encouraged the audience to remind their white colleagues and leaders that racism was not a thing of the past, though many people choose to believe that.
