Charleston

Rest In Power: Black Lives Matter Charleston Remembers Muhiyidin D’Baha

February 9, 2018 Black Lives Matter Charleston. PopularResistance.org Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Charleston, Protests, Racism

In life, there are a few select people that make a difference wherever they go. Muhiyyidin D'Baha was one of those people. As a social justice warrior, he taught us all about courage, self-reliance, and most of all love. He brought his passion for people, especially children, wherever he went. His Ba'hai faith opened him up spiritually to so many. To meet him was an experience, to know and love was a privilege. He never really thought of himself as a leader. However, his willingness to stand up to injustice brought him to that realm for many of us in the community. Muhiyyidin worked tirelessly to continue on a long line of people who dedicated their lives to fighting for freedom and equality, and we are committed to this being at the forefront of his legacy.

Charleston Workers Renew Region’s Ties To Highlander Center

July 26, 2017 Kerry Taylor, www.facingsouth.org Strategize! Charleston, Labor, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Kerry Taylor for Facing South - Seventy years ago, a group of cigar factory workers from Charleston, South Carolina, traveled almost 500 miles to the Highlander Folk School, a leadership training school founded in East Tennessee in 1932. There, the workers introduced the school's musical director to a gospel song that had boosted their spirits during a protracted strike the previous year. Highlander staff taught the song to thousands of labor and civil rights movement activists over the years and, as its popularity spread, "We Shall Overcome" became an anthem for human rights causes worldwide. It has been sung by left-wing college students in India, anti-apartheid protesters in South Africa, and civil rights supporters from Birmingham, Alabama, to Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the footsteps of the tobacco workers, three Charleston food and hospitality industry workers attended an educational and organizing workshop at Highlander earlier this month sponsored by Raise Up for $15. Since the summer of 2013, Raise Up has been the Southern expression of the national "Fight for $15" — the Service Employees International Union-backed movement for a livable wage and union rights for low-wage workers.

‘Stand With Charleston’: Communities Rise Up For Black Lives

June 22, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Charleston, Racial Justice

As Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church reopens for services, people across the United States on Sunday are marching through the streets, mobilizing in their faith communities, and staging direct actions to demand an end to white supremacist terror nationwide. "What happened to our family is part of a larger attack on Black and Brown bodies,"wrote Rev. Waltrina Middleton, a family member of Rev. Depayne Middleton, who was killed in the massacre. "We call on all people, public officials, faith leaders and Americans from all walks of life to help address the festering sores of racism as it spurs an unforgiving culture of violence." Maurice Mitchell of Movement for Black Lives—a national coalition of groups including Ferguson Action, Black Lives Matter, and Black Youth Project 100—toldCommon Dreams that others in the city and state are echoing this call.

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