Civil Rights

Net Neutrality Activists Take Civil Rights Fight To Telecom Giants

February 25, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Civil Rights, FCC, Net Neutrality

In the lead-up to the FCC's pivotal net neutrality vote on Thursday, civil rights and media justice organizations across the United States are taking their demands for an open internet to the store-fronts of the telecommunications giants that continue to aggressively fight the protections. In partnership with the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-net), local organizations began rallying last week to bring the call "Don't Block My Internet" to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner. Notable actions have already taken place in numerous cities—including Berkeley, California; Urbana-Champaign, Illinois; and San Antonio, Texas—with more slated for the coming days.

Civil Rights Activists Protest AT&T, Demand Internet Freedom

February 22, 2015 Media Justice, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Civil Rights, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Champaign, IL – Despite the snow storm, a crowd of civil rights activists and supporters gathered outside of AT&T store today, demanding the company and other Internet service providers (ISPs) nationwide #DontBlockMyInternet. In the countdown for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pass new net neutrality rules on February 26 that will keep the Internet fair, fast, and open for generations to come, local groups Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) and CU Citizens for Peace and Justice --in partnership with the Media Action Grassroots Network, Color of Change, Presente, Free Press, and other partners -- gathered to lift up the voices of communities of color and low-income Internet users who won’t stand for corporate gatekeepers interfering with First Amendment rights.

Ingredients For Building Courage

February 12, 2015 George Lakey, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Civil Rights, Media, Student Activism

The students’ stated mission was to teach in Freedom Schools and organize African Americans to try to register to vote despite heavy repression. Their unstated mission was to draw the attention of the North to hardcore segregation and force the federal government against its will to support the right to vote. Northern students taking large risks would be attention-getters, and might even offer some measure of protection to the embattled field workers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, who had been in Mississippi since 1961. Even to take the bus to the training, most students would have endured strong opposition from family and friends fearful for their safety.

The Crises Are Urgent, So Let’s Slow Down

February 7, 2015 Hénia Belalia, www.truth-out.org Organize! Capitalism, Civil Rights, Colonialism

Wise sister and civil rights organizer George Friday, once told me that "There are two paces to organizing for change: the speed with which our systems are collapsing and the slow intentional time that is necessary for deep movement building." Too often, the anxieties about the world's problems lead to a hasty rush for solutions in which the slow time is compromised for the sake of moving actions, campaigns and institutional agendas forward. In that space, the complexities of systemic oppressions are overlooked, and the very inequalities that we are fighting to abolish continue to play themselves out. With every excuse to deal with the micro aggressions later, because the crises of environmental and social degradation must take precedence, the same folks are made expendable and sacrificed.

‘Friendship Nine’ Cleared Of 1961 Civil Rights Sit-In Crimes

January 29, 2015 Colleen Jenkins, www.reuters.com Resist! Civil Rights, Law, Sit-In

Black civil rights protesters credited with reinvigorating the 1960s U.S. sit-in movement were absolved by a South Carolina court on Wednesday of the convictions lodged against them 54 years ago after they dared to sit at a segregated lunch counter. The men, known as the 'Friendship Nine' because most were students at the now-closed Friendship College, knew they would be arrested when they took seats at the popular McCrory's five-and-dime store lunch counter in Rock Hill on Jan. 31, 1961. Found guilty of trespassing, they became the country's first demonstrators to choose to serve jail time rather than pay a fine for sitting at an all-white lunch counter, launching the "jail, no bail" strategy later adopted by other activists.

No DOJ Prosecution Of Wilson Means Struggle Continues

January 26, 2015 Syreeta McFadden, www.alternet.org Resist! Civil Rights, Law, Racial Justice

The purpose of leaks by “credible sources” is to manage expectations for the public. So the leak indicating that the Department of Justice will likely not pursue federal civil rights charges against Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown is likely a trial balloon to see how the public will react. I hope that one of those reactions is a demand for police reforms across the board, imposed not only from the top down but also from within. Justice – which we believe embodies accountability, blame, the restoration of equality, and a repair to some awful wrong between the aggrieved and the aggressor – loses its meaning in circumstances like this.

Beyond MLK: 9 Others Who Died For Black Liberation

January 19, 2015 Atlanta Blackstar, www.handsupunited.org Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Civil Rights, MLK, Racial Justice

Black history has been celebrated in America throughout the month of February since 1976, and 50 years prior in Negro History Week. During this time, classrooms across America typically engage in activities from plays and artwork to writing assignments that highlight the contributions of Black people. Despite its nearly 100-year history, Black History Month often excludes the contributions of African and Caribbean-born leaders and even some American-born leaders, who get buried beneath staples such as civil rights activists Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. These leaders and activists have earned their rightful place in history, however a disservice is done to countless other leaders from around the world who too fought for Black liberation.

Thoughts About The Greatness of Selma, Unity, And King

January 16, 2015 Alan Gilbert, www.democratic-individuality.blogspot.com Educate! Civil Rights, Ferguson, History, Media, Racial Justice

The movie “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, is a subtle, restrained account of a period of the most extreme American violence against black people, focused on the leadership and struggles of Martin and Coretta King as well as the many who joined them in Selma and around the country. The experience DuVernay conjures, for instance, the horrific shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson in a restaurant in Selma, his father’s grieving at the coroner’s office, Jimmie’s body seen through the glass and King’s compassion, is alive today in the movement Black Lives Matter! about the murders of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin... The director sought to capture many people from the civil rights movement.

Release Government Files On Malcolm X Assassination

January 14, 2015 Boston Globe, www.bostonglobe.com Educate! Civil Rights, History, Malcolm X

AS THE 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination nears next month, questions around his killing still linger. That’s why the Department of Justice should heed an online petition to release all the federal files surrounding the civil rights leader’s death. A small group has launched a modest yet compelling grassroots effort to get a fuller picture of the half-century-old case, and its call for full transparency should be honored. On Feb. 21, 1965, the 39-year-old black former Nation of Islam minister, who had left the group and formed his own religious organization, was gunned down inside the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. While three Nation of Islam members were convicted of the murder, speculation around the real motive remains, and some question whether the real assassin is still at large.

The Real History Of Selma

January 3, 2015 Emilye Crosby, www.teachingforchange.org Educate! Civil Rights, Human Rights, Racial Justice

On this 50th anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act it helped inspire, national attention is centered on the iconic images of “Bloody Sunday,” the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the interracial marchers, and President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. This version of history, emphasizing a top-down narrative and isolated events, reinforces the master narrative which civil rights activists describe as, “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white folks came South to save the day.” Today, issues of racial equity and voting rights are front and center in the lives of young people. There is much they can learn from an accurate telling of the Selma (Dallas County) voting rights campaign and the larger Civil Rights Movement. We owe it to students on this anniversary to share the history that can help equip them to carry on the struggle today.

Keep Marching On

January 3, 2015 Bill Fletcher Jr., www.jacobinmag.com Resist! Civil Rights, Ferguson, police brutality, Racial Justice

But this anomalous (if egregious) violence against police officers cannot be used to stop a nonviolent movement. The Haymarket Massacre is still the paradigmatic case of the state using a violent act to justify repression. In 1886, at the height of the movement for an eight-hour workday, a bomb was set off at a worker rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The rally was called to both protest police killings of worker protesters and to support striking workers fighting for the eight-hour day. When police attacked the demonstration, a bomb was thrown. To this day no one knows who set off the explosive, including whether it was an agent provocateur or an activist. What is known, however, is that the government used the bombing as a pretext to discredit the protests and the workers movement, suggesting that the entire movement was comprised of supposedly violent anarchists.

Little-Known Civil Rights Statute In Police Shootings

December 30, 2014 Paul Lewis, www.theguardian.com Educate! Civil Rights, Law, police brutality, Police the Police

The review was launched after the Milwaukee district attorney announced that Christopher Manney – the police officer who shot Hamilton, and who has since been fired – will not face charges. In all four cases, federal officials are considering whether there is sufficient evidence to bring charges under a section of the US code that prohibits public officials from depriving an individual of constitutional rights under “color of law”. The DOJ did not respond to questions about whether there were any additional police shooting cases from 2014 – aside from those relating to the deaths of Brown, Garner, Crawford III and Hamilton – that are currently subject to departmental review or investigation.

Time Person Of The Year Runner-Up: Ferguson Protesters

December 27, 2014 Alex Altman, www.time.com Educate! Civil Rights, Eric Garner, Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality, Protests, Tamir Rice

Activists are putting some hope in Washington: the Department of Justice hasopened separate civil rights probes into the Ferguson police force and Garner’s death. In Ferguson, voter-registration drives are under way ahead of April’s city council elections. And the struggle has spread. On Dec. 3, after protesting the Garner grand jury decision at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis, Elzie glanced down at her phone. It was lighting up with tweets and texts tracking the night’s arrests, as well as updates from the demonstrations in New York. Like many in Ferguson, she was heading there the next day to join them.

5 Big Myths About ‘Next Generation’ Civil Rights & Open Internet

December 16, 2014 Malkia A. Cyril, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Internet, Net Neutrality, police brutality, Racial Justice

As Black communities emerge from the shadows of criminalization, hashtags like#BlackLivesMatter have jumped off the computer screen and into the street. Beyond sparking a long-awaited new civil rights movement, they are also catalyzing an amazing 21st century model for civil rights activism. But the ability of Black communities to use the Internet to sustain this growing movement is threatened. Last year, a D.C. circuit court struck down network neutrality rules. The court told the FCC, the agency that regulates the Internet, that the only way to legally prevent discrimination online and enforce the net neutrality rules that make the Internet such a powerful tool, is to reclassify broadband as common carrier service -- a public utility, like electricity or water.

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