Civil Rights

Bad Ass Teachers: Investigate Civil Rights Abuses In Education

December 9, 2014 Badass Teachers, www.badassteachers.blogspot.com Organize! Civil Rights, Education, Racial Justice

Dear Secretary Duncan and Mr. Kim: This open letter is a respectful request to convene a national committee to investigate civil rights abuses that have reached a crisis point. While we commend you for meeting with BATs, Save Our Schools, United Opt Out, Journey for Justice, among other educational activist groups (and hope that you have read the Journey for Justice report entitled "Death by a Thousand Cuts”), we are requesting a follow up process that will result in action regarding disturbing trends we have observed with regards to civil rights violations of both students and teachers. As a national group of nearly 53,000 educators, we have collected the following observations as areas of concern. . .

Civil Rights Movement Came Out Of A Moment Like This

December 7, 2014 Dani McClain, www.thenation.com Strategize! Civil Rights, Police abuse, Racism

Back in August, some observers drew comparisons between the shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. If parallels to civil rights movement history are helpful now, then let yesterday’s announcement that a Staten Island grand jury won’t indict the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death be a sign that we’re somewhere closer to 1963—when a series of devastating setbacks and subsequent widespread outrage transformed the civil rights struggle—than we are to Till’s lynching, that earlier consciousness-raising moment. There was a perfect storm this week: the continuing fallout of the failed indictment of Wilson; the news of the outcome in the Garner case; a Cleveland newspaper’s efforts to discredit and sling mud on the parents of a 12-year-old boy killed by police. This moment has the potential to catapult change

FCC, Deliver The Internet We Deserve

November 29, 2014 Center For Media Justice, www.freepress.net Resist! Civil Rights, Human Rights, Internet, Net Neutrality, Racial Justice

We brought this delegation of civil rights leaders to Washington, D.C., to remind Commissioner Clyburn that the communities that will be most adversely affected by weak Net Neutrality rules are communities of color. Presente shared how vital an open Internet has been in pushing the immigration debate forward and empowering President Obama to issue last week’s executive order. For ColorOfChange, an organization that grew from one email in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the largest online community of African Americans, the Internet has allowed it to stake out a powerful political voice. The evidence of this power is unfolding in Ferguson as we speak. We delivered the message that strong Net Neutrality 1) ensures companies are not allowed to discriminate against voices online, 2) bans fast lanes and slow lanes, and 3) provides equal protections for the 60 percent of Latinos and 43 percent of African Americans who access the Internet primarily through their cellphones.

Civil Rights Groups’ False Split Over Net Neutrality

November 22, 2014 Brian Fung, www.washingtonpost.com Create! Civil Rights, FCC, Internet, Net Neutrality

The heated debate in Washington over a critical policy measure that could shape the future of the Internet has created a peculiar split among traditional allies. A number of civil rights organizations and diversity groups overwhelmingly back a proposal that would lightly regulate telecom providers and broadband companies. But other groups representing minorities as well as consumer advocates and other public interest groups want to make sure that Internet service providers are regulated closely to be sure they don't slow down the traffic speeds of Web sites they don't like. The strange juxtaposition can be plainly observed in the letters sent by these groups to the Federal Communications Commission, which is responsible for establishing the new so-called "net neutrality" policy.

Lawyers Descend On Ferguson Ahead Of Grand Jury Decision

November 22, 2014 Tim Reid, www.dailymail.co.uk Resist! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Law

Hundreds of civil rights lawyers from across America are descending on Ferguson, Missouri as police and protesters prepare for a grand jury decision on whether to charge the officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in August. The attorneys are arriving in Ferguson as talks between protest groups and police have stalled over a refusal by officials to rule out the use of riot gear, tear gas and militarized equipment if demonstrations turn violent should a grand jury decide not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, protest leaders say.

Fifty Years Ago: A Turning Point In Civil Rights

November 12, 2014 Ted Morgan, www.truth-out.org Educate! Civil Rights, History, Racial Justice

In many circles, 1968 is seen as the crucial turning point in which the spread of tumultuous uprisings around the world not only wrought significant social change, but also helped to generate a backlash that ushered in the neoliberal era that currently dominates the globe. I would argue, however, that the seeds for that transformation were planted via the historic events occurring in 1964. First, 1964 saw a critical shift beginning to take place in the civil rights movement. Passage of the Civil Rights Act was, of course, of great historic significance, as was the following year's passage of the Voting Rights Act. Together, the two pieces of legislation began to dismantle the southern system of apartheid, bringing to fruition a decade of civil rights struggle.

After Ferguson, From Civil Rights To Human Rights

October 11, 2014 Nathan Schneider, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Human Rights

A rebellion can’t last forever. But in the weeks since the killing of Michael Brown, the people of Ferguson, Mo., have been keeping it up for the rest of us. Now is when vision matters most — a vision or visions that can carry people from the moment to momentum, within which a movement can mature and grow and win. That’s why we should be discussing proposals like Forward from Ferguson, a new report by Max Rameau, M Adams and Rob Robinson — all veterans of the influential housing-justice group Take Back the Land, now working as the Center for Pan-African Development. The document, drawing on utterances of Malcolm X, calls for the U.S. racial justice movement to turn from the framework of civil rights to human rights. This is Malcolm speaking: We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level — to the level of human rights.

Popular Protests: Success Is Measured In The Long Term

October 7, 2014 Yang Su, www.scmp.com Strategize! China, Civil Rights, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protest

Had he lived to this day, I wonder, what Professor Fang Lizhi, a beloved sage of China’s pro-democracy movement, would say. Accused by the government of being a “black hand”, Fang was one of the intellectuals whose initial call for democracy helped trigger the 1989 student movement. Professor Fang’s was a call to resist the temptation for an immediate victory and to recognise potential success in the long run. This wisdom is consistent with research findings about the outcome of social protest. It is very rare for any protest to have its demand immediately met – an unjust law changed, or a targeted official removed. In most examples, even defeated protests would surely help bring about the social changes the protestors fought for.

Beyond 935 Lies

October 5, 2014 David Swanson, www.warisacrime.org Educate! Civil Rights, Media, Propaganda, Wars and Militarism

Charles Lewis' book, 935 Lies, would make a fine introduction to reality for anyone who believes the U.S. government usually means well or corporations tend to tell the truth in the free market. And it would make an excellent introduction to the decline and fall of the corporate media. Even if these topics aren't new to you, this book has something to add and retells the familiar quite well. The familiar topics include the Gulf of Tonkin, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the civil rights movement, U.S. aggression and CIA overthrows, Pinochet, Iran-Contra, lying tobacco companies, and Edward R. Murrow. Lewis brings insight to these and other topics, and if he doesn't document that things were better before the 1960s, he does establish that horrible things have been getting worse since, and are now much more poorly reported on.

New poem by Alice Walker: Gather (Júntense)

September 21, 2014 Alice Walker, www.CreativeResistance.org Resist! Civil Rights, police brutality

If you refuse to accept the constant harassment, brutality, and murder of Black and Brown people at the hands of the NYPD then come to the vigil. Let your voice and demands be heard. This must stop! Gather your friends, co-workers, members of your religious congregation, fellow union members, neighbors, professional colleagues, and others. Choose a day to represent, publicize that you will be there, and let us know. Think of the significance of families with pictures of their loved ones whose lives have been stolen by the NYPD gathering in front of 1 Police Plaza.

Leaders Come from the Bottom Up

September 21, 2014 Charles Cobb, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Racism

For all the righteous indignation it inspired, the Ferguson turmoil has become the latest in a series of flash-in-the-pan causes that peter out without inspiring lasting movements for racial justice. As an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi during the ’60s, what I learned was the importance of organizing at the grass-roots and how even small actions at this level can have national impact. That is why I cannot help but notice that many black leaders, in their efforts to drive change, are ignoring some of the great lessons of the Southern Freedom Movement.

Climate March, This Generation’s ‘March On Washington’?

September 13, 2014 Nick Engelfried, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Civil Rights, Climate Change, Protest

On August 28, 1963, 200,000 people swarmed into the nation’s capital for one of the most iconic moments in the civil rights movement: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. More often remembered today simply as the March on Washington, it was seen by many as a turning point for the civil rights movement, which helped spur passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. Today, with hundreds of thousands of people preparing to descend on one of the country’s largest cities for the September 21 People’s Climate March, some are hoping for a similarly transformative moment in the climate movement. But whether the People’s Climate March succeeds in generating the kind of results achieved by the 1963 March on Washington — and whether that is, in fact, a desirable outcome — remains to be seen.

Kicked Out After Refusing To Stand For Pledge

September 9, 2014 Justin King, www.theantimedia.org Resist! Civil Rights, First Amendment, Free Speech, Nationalism, Police the Police

Winter Garden, FL – Mayor John Rees ordered a man to stand first for a prayer, then for the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of a City Commission meeting last Thursday. When the man refused, the Mayor ordered the Chief of Police to use force and “escort” him from the room. Chief of Police George A. Brennan just followed orders and violated the man’s civil rights. The whole incident was captured on the victim’s cellular phone. Joseph Richardson is reported to have repeatedly asked the city to change its invocation and documents the prayer. Mayor John Rees does not seem to fully grasp the severity of his actions. After the incident he said “Life will go on.” Constitutional watchdog group, the American Civil Liberties Union, has a page dedicated to the question of the Pledge of Allegiance. It states: The Pledge being recited in the early years. “Can I be made to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? No. The Supreme Court has ruled that just as the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to say what he or she wants, it also protects his or her right not to say something. Almost 60 years ago the court determined that compulsory flag salutes are a violation of an individual’s right to free speech. So, students in public schools may refuse to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance and choose to remain quietly seated instead. Note, however, that if you decline to say the pledge that you do not have the right to disrupt the proceedings.”

The Occupation And Ethnic Cleansing Of Africa-America

August 22, 2014 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Kevin Berends, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Civil Rights, Ferguson, History, Police, Racial Justice

"Ferguson has already waged a good fight.” There is always context – the larger gestalt of any given time. The sixties are symbolized by Birmingham, Selma, Little Rock. Both racial divides and historic photographs are frozen in black and white of menacing police, German shepherds, water hoses. Whether we add Ferguson, Missouri, to this lexicon of moments defining African-America—and America—will depend largely on whether or not the courage on display in Ferguson is isolated or is conveyed through progressive action to the wider population. The persistence of the Ferguson uprising has the signature of something larger and deeper, with hundreds of citizens giving new meaning to the universal sign of surrender, by lifting their arms—not in capitulation—but in refusing surrender. Chanting, "Don't shoot!" protesters invoke the last words of police-murdered-teenager Michael Brown, executed by a white police officer who hit him with at least six shots—Brown's unarmed hands raised in the air. This time the images come in hi-definition and real time. Sharp against the police officer's pant legs straddling it we can see the almost green cast to the German shepherd's fur and muscled, gloved white arms holding the leash.

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