The panel gathered for the event included Gatling and Michele Coleman Mayes, Taa Grays, Erica Edwards-O’Neal and LaTanya Langley. Each offered a different perspective on the theme and shared how their personal experiences shaped their careers.

Gatling shared the story of Fannie Lou Hamer and Mississippi’s Freedom Summer of 1964 and how those situations have shaped her own life and decision to run to be the first black female district attorney in Brooklyn.

“Fannie Lou Hamer was a bold leader willing to take on difficult and challenging goals,” Gatling said.

Gatling explained how in Mississippi, despite technically having the right to vote, many blacks did not in fear of retribution, or even death. She discussed her own grandfather, a cotton farmer who owned his own farm for more than 30 years, but never attempted to register out of fear because he lived 45 miles from a town where three civil rights workers were murdered.

“Fannie Lou Hamer’s job in Mississippi was to organize throughout the South so that blacks could vote,” Gatling said. “At the time, about 7 percent of the black population was registered to vote. She was instrumental in the ‘Freedom Summer,’ working with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), registering over 66 percent of blacks in Mississippi.”

Thanks in part to the work done by Hamer, Gatling’s father would eventually feel comfortable enough to vote. He couldn’t read very well, but that didn’t stop him. He brought his granddaughter Patricia Gatling with him to help him in the booth the first time he went.

“He wanted me to read the ballot so that he could be sure that he was voting for the right person,” Gatling explained. “What I’m saying is that hands that picked cotton could now pick legislators.”

Gatling went on to talk about prosecutors across the country. There are roughly 2,300 and of those, 95 percent are elected, she said. Of those elected prosecutors, just 21 percent are minorities and only 1 percent are women of color and 14 states have no elected prosecutors of color at all, Gatling explained.

“In December of 2016, I took the bold step of deciding to run for DA of Kings County,” Gatling said. “It’s an enormous undertaking to say the least. I’m running because, like Fanny, I believe that bold leadership can bring about great change. I’ve witnessed this fact in my life.

“Like Fannie, I question America and a system of justice that is fraught with inequities and lacks fundamental fairness,” she continued. “A system of justice that criminalizes the poor, addicted and confused and disillusioned. Like Fannie, I’m running to legitimize the system and I believe in America and I believe that we can change.”

Gatling is currently at attorney at Windels, Marx, Lane & Mittendorf. She is the longest serving Human Rights Commissioner in New York City history, having held the position from 2002 until 2015. She worked as an assistant district attorney with the Kings County DA’s Office from 1990 until February 2002, where she worked her way up to first assistant district attorney under Charles Hynes.

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