RECAP: Vanessa Williams and Darius de Haas Sang and Janai Nelson Talked About the Legal Defense Fund on STARS IN THE HOUSE

Stars in the House continued Wednesday night (8pm) for Vanessa Williams joined by LDF's Associate Director-Counsel Janai Nelson.

Vanessa Williams began by discussing Black Theatre United and her involvement. "I got a call from Audra [McDonald] and LaChanze and they said 'we would love to do something. We don't know what but we need some founding members and let's figure it out.' And we all had a think tank and there's about fifteen/sixteen of us and we thought about what we could do as a group of professionals on Broadway who are of color and what our purpose would be as opposed to not just racism within the theatre which we will get to that in one of our agendas but also how do we talk about voter registration? How do we get people involved in police reform? Because all of these things needed to be addressed so Black Theatre United is what we came up with and it is comprised of not only artists and singers and dancers and actors but company managers, stage managers, lighting designers, wardrobe designers, stagehands, all people of color that have a voice and that can tell their stories but also want to direct energy toward whatever our agenda is."

Vanessa Williams talked about being the first Black Miss America. "I was 20 years old, I won in September of 83, and being the first Black Miss America, I had white people that said 'Well she's black so she doesn't represent us.' I had death threats. There were so many that my parents had a red box that they amassed all these threats and were in dialogue with the FBI because I was traveling all over the country every day so they had to be aware of where the threats were. My first parade...I was supposed to be in a convertible, I was supposed to be in the back and then at the very end it got switched up and they said 'We think you need to sit in the car.' And of course I'm thinking ok maybe it's protection but I didn't realize how severe the threats were."

Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Council of the Legal Defense Fund joined and talked about the organization. "Legal Defense Fund has worked on a variety of transformative cases...We are the ones who ended white primaries in Texas. We are the ones who ended state-sponsored segregation...we ended racially restricted covenants...to prevent African American's from integrating into white communities. We were one of the only organizations to ever secure a moratorium on the death penalty for five years and we carry that legacy forward today by protecting voting rights, ensuring that people are counted in the census, by still fighting for criminal justice reform...we still have an enormous education docket."

Vanessa Williams sang "Being Good," and "Bubble Kisses." Darius de Haas sang "Send One Your Love."

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos