Roger L. Green  Roger L. Green (born June 23, 1949) is an American legislator who served in the New York State Assembly for 26 years, from 1981 to 2007 (with a brief interruption in 2004), representing District 57 which, allowing for redistricting adjustments, has primarily comprised the New York City borough of Brooklyn neighborhoods Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was the first Muslim member of the Assembly. A native of Brooklyn, Roger L. Green was raised in a family with a long history of participation in the struggles to advance human rights and economic justice. He was educated in the New York City public school system and graduated from Southern Illinois University, where he attained a triple major in Cultural Anthropology, International Affairs and Government. After graduation and return to Brooklyn, he became involved in local politics, joining several civil rights groups and community organizations concerned with the elimination of racism and social injustice. He was raised Baptist but converted to Islam in the early 1970s. After a historic election that required him to win an unprecedented three primary runoffs, Roger Green was elected to the New York State Assembly in November 1980. He was a member of the State Assembly (57th D.) from 1981 to 2006 (with an interruption in 2004), sitting in the 184th, 185th, 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th, 195th and 196th New York State Legislatures. During his tenure in public office, he distinguished himself as an architect of laws, policies and institutions that defined his commitment to civil and human rights within New York State, the nation, and the world community. Beginning in 1981, he participated in numerous mass mobilizations and legislative mobilizations dedicated to the abolition of police brutality. In response to the deaths of Luis Baez, Randolph Evans and Eleanor Bumpurs, Green authored legislation creating the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. This social justice advocacy organization has become a renowned transformative vehicle for the abolition of racial injustice. The Center worked with the New York City Council to author the disparity study, which quantified discriminatory practices within the construction industry. In 1983, Coretta Scott King and labor leader Cleveland Robinson asked Green to serve as the New York State Political Coordinator for the Memorial March on Washington. It was during this period that Green authored the bill that established the New York State Martin Luther King Holiday Commission and the New York State Martin Luther King Institute. In 1985 and 1986 in conjunction with the founding of the National Holiday, Governor Cuomo signed these bills into law.