A couple of weeks ago, while watching a Saints game outside a local New Orleans’ barroom, I met Prudence Brown, one of the Dyett 12. The Dyett 12 are a group of Chicagoans who have taken to a hunger strike to save their neighborhood high school, named for Walter Henri Dyett. Dyett was an African American […]
How An Act of Prudence Upped the Ante for Justice in 2015 Read More »
Charles E. Cobb Jr., former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary, recently wrote a very good article “Black people had the power to fix the problems in Ferguson before the Brown shooting. They failed (http://wapo.st/1DtwxSV).” While Mr. Cobb makes some excellent points regarding the Civil Rights Movement as it relates to the events that
Black People Had the Power – They WERE Failed Read More »
First, calm down. I am still a great fan of this juggernaut of Bootstrapping Black Power, but sometimes the times call for things to be said that run counter to the popular notions. Furthermore, to deny the shortcomings of our heroes and sheroes is to deny them of their humanity while lifting them to a
Frederick Douglass Was Only Partially Right Read More »
Over the past few months, especially the past few days, the word justice has littered my social network pages in response to the various killings of unarmed civilians*. As a career community organizer, whose field of work is often described as social justice, I have given this word justice quite a bit of mental time.
This Thing Called Justice Read More »
On Sunday following the Trayvon Martin verdict, as part of a Facebook thread (started by me), I posted the following quote, paraphrasing Frederick Douglass (be warned – this is a major paraphrase!), “Power concedes nothing without struggle and once the vigilance of struggle subsides, will seek to re-impose the comforts it once enjoyed.” There are
Frederick Douglass, Justice, and Trayvon Martin Read More »
