In the summer of 1984, Jessie Davis, a young Black man was shot and killed by police in his Arbor Hill apartment. His killing served to galvanize the African-American community in Albany to seek change in the way the Police Department treated community residents. One outgrowth of the community's outrage over the killing was the birth of The Center for Law and Justice in 1985. The Center helped to keep the case before the public, gave moral support to the Davis family, assisted attorneys with a federal lawsuit against the city, and organized community demonstrations and fundraising events to cover legal expenses related to the family's suit. The Center's overall mission has been to promote the empowerment of people to change what they believed was the oppressive nature of the total criminal justice system, although the organization has continued to focus much of its work on policing issues. Dr. Alice P. Green, founder and Executive Director of the Center for Law and Justice, Inc. donated 13 boxes of records to the M.E. Grenander Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany Library in June 2000. In November 2000, three more boxes were donated.