AMISTAD's
Mission & Vision
The AMISTAD Long Island Black Bar Association was founded in 1996 and was created to foster community, professional development, and growth among attorneys of color in the Long Island area. As J. Stewart Moore, one of Amistad’s founding members has said, “Amistad is all about history.” This is demonstrated even in the organization’s name.
"Le Amistad" was the name of the 1839 Spanish ship whose passengers were so famously memorialized in Steven Spielberg’s movie of the same name. In 1841, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Africans aboard the Amistad had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and thus the Court ordered them freed. The Amistad survivors victoriously returned to Africa in 1842.
While many are familiar with this United States Supreme Court case involving the African passengers, some do not know that the Amistad ship itself first docked in Sag Harbor, Long Island before being transferred to Connecticut, becoming a part of local history.
AMISTAD seeks to continue the tradition of providing opportunities for networking, leadership, and professional growth to attorneys in the practice of law who work and/or live on Long Island.
AMISTAD actively provides supportive environments for law students, judges, and attorneys of color in all walks of the profession.
AMISTAD was formerly known as the AMISTAD Suffolk Black Bar Association before the organization expanded to both the Nassau and Suffolk regions. AMISTAD includes among its members judges, prosecutors, lawyers in private practice and in the public service, as well as students of the local law schools. We are proud of AMISTAD's history, and we look forward to many more years of continued growth and leadership.
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