Honorees
This year, we will honor our clients and co-counsel in our case taking on Pennsylvania’s firearm preemption laws, which block most local gun safety laws. The recipients of the Thaddeus Stevens Award this year are those who have stood up to gun violence and who are working with us to clear the roadblocks for meaningful local action that research has shown will save lives in Philadelphia.
- Our clients, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh residents who have lost loved ones to gun violence
- Our pro bono counsel Hogan Lovells
- Nancy Bregstein Gordon, co-founder of CeaseFirePA, leading advocates for gun safety legislation and our client
Each of our ten individual clients has lost one or more close family members to firearm violence. And as residents of the communities hit hardest by this public health crisis, they and their family members experience the first-hand effects of gun violence in their everyday lives. By standing up and sharing their stories with bravery and resolve, they are helping to push for Philadelphia and cities across the state to be able take action and to fill the vacuum left by our state legislature’s failure to address gun safety.
- Tracey Anderson
- Delia Chatterfield
- Stanley Crawford
- Aishah George
- Rita Gonsalves
- Maria Gonsalves-Perkins
- Wynona Harper
- Tamika Morales
- Cheryl Pedro
- Rosalind Pichardo
Nancy Gordon is a lawyer and activist who has spent over two decades working to reduce gun violence in Pennsylvania and nationwide. After graduating from Yale College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was the first woman Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell and subsequently was an appellate litigator at Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., and Dechert in Philadelphia. From 2010 to 2018, Nancy co-taught the Supreme Court Clinic at Penn Law, which provided pro bono representation in cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nancy became involved in gun violence prevention in 2000, as one of the core group of organizers of the Million Mom March. She led the Pennsylvania delegation to the historic march on Washington on Mothers’ Day 2000, calling on Congress to pass sensible gun laws. To continue that effort, Nancy co-founded CeaseFirePA, the Commonwealth’s leading organization dedicated to ending gun violence. She currently chairs the group’s Litigation Committee and previously served for many years as a Board member and President.
In collaboration with the Law Center and our pro bono counsel at Hogan Lovells, Nancy plays a leading role in the pending case of Crawford v. Commonwealth, in which the City of Philadelphia, CeaseFirePA, and individual victims of gun violence are challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s firearm preemption laws, which bar Philadelphia and other municipalities from enacting their own measures to save lives. The case is currently on appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Gun violence disproportionally ravages low-income Black and Latino communities in Philadelphia, making gun violence both a public health emergency and a civil rights issue. A leading global law firm, Hogan Lovells is pro bono co-counsel in Crawford v. Commonwealth, our lawsuit with the City of Philadelphia challenging Pennsylvania’s firearm preemption laws, which prevent municipalities from enacting most common-sense local gun laws that have been demonstrated to save lives. Representing individuals who have lost family members to gun violence and CeaseFirePA, Hogan Lovells lawyers and staff generously devote their many talents, countless hours, and resources pursuing this groundbreaking litigation now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Emcee & Entertainment
QuentinThePoet
The Time is Now will be hosted by emcee QuentinThePoet. QuentinThePoet is an orator, journalist, and Adjunct Instructor of Social Media Marketing at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. He is the CEO of DragonTree Media Group and curator for organizations like Grounds For Sculpture and the Barnes Foundation. He’s performed for TV, Radio, and digital platforms like Upworthy. As an artistivist, Quentin is committed to placemaking and curating experiences to foster connections that facilitate equity and inclusion through the power of written, spoken, and visual storytelling.
PME Drumline
“Everybody has rhythm. If you have a heartbeat, that’s your rhythm.”
– Founder | Tony “Tone” Royster aka Mr. Y Not
Positive Movement Entertainment was started in 2011 as a drum line and became a drill team in 2014. PME is probably the most distinguishable drum line in Philadelphia, thanks to Tim Harris and Seven Knots Film who released a documentary in April 2020 about Mr. Y NOT and his mission. The group can be seen on any given day drumming throughout the city of Philadelphia. Their mission is to decrease gun violence in the City of Philadelphia by providing all people with a safe environment, resources, leadership & inspiration required to express themselves with drumming, dancing, positivity & love.
