FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jay Jenkins, Vice-President
Phone: (515) 229-6928
Email: jjenkins@texascjc.org
FBISD Served with Cease and Desist Letter from Attorneys for Reginald Moore;
Reginald Moore and CLLP Will Decline to Attend FBISD Blessing Ceremony
Sugar Land, TX – The Convict Leasing and Labor Project (CLLP) announces that on November 8, 2019, Drew Willey, an attorney representing Reginald Moore, delivered a cease and desist letter to Fort Bend Independent School District General Counsel Robert Scamardo. The cease and desist letter emanates from two incidents: FBISD’s use of Mr. Moore’s image and likeness without his permission in a September 17, 2019 FBISD YouTube video and a November 6, 2019 telephone conversation between FBISD’s Community Advisory Group and a CLLP board member wherein Liz Peterson, a CLLP Board Member, was informed that FBISD intended to use still images, video, and sound of Reginald Moore should Mr. Moore decline to attend FBISD’s blessing ceremony.
As a result of these actions, Mr. Moore would like to announce that he will not attend FBISD’s ceremony scheduled for November 17, and he hopes that no further action will be necessary to prevent FBISD from continuing to use his image without permission.
“In life and in death, the Sugar Land 95 have been subjected to atrocious atrocities and crimes against humanity,” said Reginald Moore, President of CLLP, “Though our hearts and efforts will continue to be with the Sugar Land 95 and their descendants, we cannot give FBISD’s efforts the veneer of legitimacy by participating further in any of their events related to the Sugar Land 95.”
CLLP stands with Mr. Moore and will similarly decline to participate in any further activities related to the Sugar Land 95 sponsored by FBISD. Further, CLLP calls for FBISD to publicly produce any documents related to their efforts at identifying and notifying the descendants of the Sugar Land 95 and calls for the district to immediately perform archaeological surveys on the remainder of the land at the site where the Sugar Land 95 were discovered and disinterred.
“The actions of FBISD, Superintendent Dupre, and FBISD’s legal counsel have made it abundantly clear to us that the district believes owning the land where the Sugar Land 95 were found entitles them to ignore the will of both the community and the courts on the reinterment of their bodies,” said Jay Jenkins, CLLP’s Vice-President.
“The financial liabilities FBISD frequently cite as an excuse for failing to survey the remaining land and lack of a meaningful burial for the Sugar Land 95 pale in comparison to the moral liability of those who would bury Sugar Land’s history quietly rather than face it and reconcile.”