Our Rights, Our Future

NCRCR Recognizes the Next Generation of Civil Rights Leaders

The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights (NCRCR) has announced the winners of its 2010 Written Essay and Visual Image Contest. The contest entitled “What Does Equality Mean to You?” asked youth ages 14-18 across the United States to define equality from their unique perspectives by submitting either a written entry or a visual image such as a drawing, cartoon or photograph. Winners were selected by a panel of high-profile judges, including singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, comedian Margaret Cho, Congressman Keith Ellison (MN), Congressman Gregory Meeks (NY) and NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Naomi Lattanzi, 16, of Los Altos, California won for her courageous personal essay entitled “Are You?” in which she discusses how she feels when a schoolmate asks whether she is a lesbian. As the nation continues to struggle with issues affecting the rights and everyday lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (“LGBTQQ”) communities such as marriage equality, bias attacks and bullying, Naomi’s answer seems fitting: “I don’t know, but you can’t take away what sense of self I have. As long as I have people who accept me you can’t make me feel inferior. You’ll eventually have to accept the truth: We are equals.”

18-year-old Misra Walker from the Bronx, New York is the winner in the visual image category. Misra’s powerful image of a Latino man standing in front of an American flag with his arms crossed over his chest and eyes downcast evokes the conflicting feelings of frustration and hope experienced by many immigrants across this country as they seek to realize the “American Dream.” This image seems particularly appropriate given the debates about immigration and citizenship happening across the country.

Finally, 18-year-old Abisola Barbara Williams from Brooklyn, New York was the first runner-up in the visual entry category. Abisola’s piece, a collage of three images featuring a young woman wearing a Muslim headscarf, another without head covering, and someone wearing a bracelet with the word “peace,” spoke to her sense of how the various aspects of race, gender and religion interact to form a complex pattern of discrimination that has resulted in her Muslim peers experiencing violence and harassment on the streets of New York. Again, this image addressed a timely and important topic given the recent rise in anti-Islamic sentiment across the country.

The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights invited winners and finalists to New York City this week in order to recognize their leadership efforts. Naomi and Abisola participated in a training session on how to speak about civil rights issues and met with a variety of civil rights advocates.

Young people have always played an important role in the struggle for civil rights and social justice. Despite the accusations of laziness and indifference leveled at them, youth political involvement over the past few years has broken every stereotype about the apathy of young people in America. During the 2008 presidential campaign we saw first-hand that this ‘Millennial Generation’ is thinking about and playing an active role in civil rights, politics and social issues. Naomi, Misra and Abisola represent a new generation of leaders whose activism and innovation will continue to shape the landscape of civil rights and social justice in the 21st century.

Grammy Award Winner Alicia Keys and Comedian Margaret Cho Join the NCRCR 2010 Youth Contest

The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights is happy to announce the addition of artist/humanitarian Alicia Keys and comedian/civil rights activist Margaret Cho to the panel of judges for its 2010 Contest, which asks young people across the country for their views on equality.  More information is available on the contest site.

National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights Spurs National Youth Dialogue

Today, the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights (NCRCR) is launching a national contest intended to draw thousands of young people into a dialogue on civil rights. The contest, entitled “What Does Equality Mean to You?” asks youth aged 14-18 across the United States to define equality from their unique perspectives. 

This contest seeks the opinions of a generation entering civic life. “Equality has meant different things to different people at different times,” said Marianne Engelman-Lado of NCRCR. “We invite America’s youth to share their perspectives and tell us what equality means to them.” Young people can submit either a written entry or a visual image such as a drawing, cartoon or photograph. The contest will run until April 12, 2010. Contest winners will receive prizes including a $500 cash award, and a trip for two to New York City. Entries will be judged by a panel of celebrity judges, including Congressman Keith Ellison, Congressman Gregory Meeks, and Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Please go to http://www.rollbackcampaign.org/contest2010/ for more details.

The March Against The RNC In St. Paul, MN

I have always been proud of the history of the liberal and progressive policies and politicians from my home state of Minnesota, but through the years I have found myself cringing as I've watched it shift to a swing state. Minnesota's changing political identity was highlighted by its hosting the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this year. But fortunately I got a chance to publicly vent my frustration when my recent visit home coincided with the convention and I took part in a highly organized protest march. By my estimation, which looks to be supported by the accounts I've read, about 10,000 people showed up to also express a variety of anti-GOP sentiments. I believe there would have been an even better showing had Hurricane Gustav not had such an impact on the convention proceedings.

The National Campaign To Restore Civil Rights Testifies In Geneva At UN Hearing On US Race Record

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2008

CONTACT: The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights - Tanene Allison (212) 244-4664

The National Campaign To Restore Civil Rights Reports On U.S. Violations of an International Treaty: Decrease of Effective Remedies and Access to the Courts To Enforce Civil Rights Violations

NEW YORK, NY- February 20 –

Today, The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights (NCRCR) testified in Geneva at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), bringing attention to the U.S. government’s failure to comply with its treaty obligations requiring it to ensure the availability of effective remedies for civil rights violations. NCRCR joined other civil society groups, in criticizing the U.S. government’s rollback of civil rights in the courts and submitted a “shadow” report to the Committee, documenting treaty violations that the U.S. ignored in its own report to the UN.

More on "Why We Can't Wait: Reversing the Retreat on Civil Rights"

The conference came to a close in the blink of an eye, in a multitude of informative break-out sessions and discussion panels.  After the opening session, the Reverend Dr. William Barber II of the North Carolina Conference NAACP delivered the key note address, calling upon the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to assure us that it is truly possible for everyone to have life, liberty, property, and to pursue happiness. Barber argued that we must have a civil rights movement that is not based on an election, but is grounded in the sustained prophetic politics of justice, or the conviction that we should not accept anything less than justice for all people.  He said that progressive Americans who have focused their energy on creating electoral change or argued to prioritize specific agenda items are missing the boat, as even politicians with best intentions become coopted by the system. Barber had the audience applauding and smiling when he proclaimed "you don't just want a new master that's nicer!," but rather require a fundamental overhaul of the political system that will redress racism and inequality based on the faith that all things are possible.

The conference schedule details the themes of the eight break-out sessions, on topics ranging from employment discrimination to the importance of treating immigration issues as civil rights issues.  Friday afternoon concluded with a panel geared toward addressing the rollback of civil rights.

Saturday morning began with a discussion on the ways we can integrate the human rights paradigm into civil rights work. The substantial gap between human and constitutional rights marks the need to transcend the historical civil rights framework in favor of calling upon the human rights with which we are all born.  There is a tendency among Americans to think that we don't need to talk about human rights because we thought that our previous civil rights victories had taken care of whatever struggles we were facing -- but in the era of the civil rights rollback by the courts, of people displaced by Hurrican Katrina, and post-9/11 torture, this is just not the case.  Human rights discourse can serve as a guideline to get us back what we have lost, and provide us with a vision of the important economic and social rights our nation also tends to ignore.  And for civil rights advocates, human rights language can serve to "reinvigorate" our work.

One area in which the human rights framework has been employed with regularity is in prisoners rights work. Our justice system has looked to other countries for guidance in best practices, on issues such as the supervision of female prisoners by female guards in order to prevent sexual abuse, even subsequently deciding to outlaw the death penalty for juveniles. Policy Analyst Ryan King of The Sentencing Project spoke of the little-known fact that felony convictions remove your right to vote for life -- in some states, 1 in 4 african american men cannot vote due to this policy, and nationwide, 13% of African American men are unable to vote. States also have widely different definitions of felonies, intended to deny the black population of its fundamental right to participate in our democracy.  In situations like this, we need to call upon human rights norms in order to illustrate how far we still have to go to achieve a just society.

The second and last panel of the day concerned next steps, an articulation of what actions we can take to build the movement for civil and human rights.  Participants advocated for a unified agenda which would connect and coordinate a three-pronged approach to reclaiming our rights:

• The first thing we need to work on is legislative advocacy or lobbying, fixing bad laws and enacting legislation where there are holes in current laws.  An example of this is work to promote the Fair Pay Act pending in Congress which would correct the loophole that allowed Goodyear Tire Co. to discriminate against Lilly Ledbetter with no recourse.  As a short soundbyte, this work we need to is about increasing access to the courts, the only governmental institution we can depend upon to enforce our rights.  Campaign finance reform is also something that could use serious attention, as it drives the marginalization of the lower-income population.
• The second approach concerns grassroots activism, the need to involve people involved at the local level with the particular issues at stake.  From health care organizing to social work, we need to capitalize on the idea that ideas only stick through action in order to get more people involved.  Media work is also an important component of the need to democratize the movement and spread the word about the rollback -- and developing a presence in both mainstream and new media (blogs, social networking, online video, etc) is crucial to ensuring that people without financial means get to tell their stories and have a voice in the debate about our freedoms.
• The third leg of our work is strategic litigation, the continued effort by lawyers to call upon the justice system in a productive manner that will enable us to protect with fundamental rights by a system of damages.  As our court system changes and becomes dominated by the right-wing, it is also important to remember that judges that refer to themselves as conservatives are banking on a connotation that is not accurate.  According to Marianne Engleman-Lado of the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, these conservative judges "love change, and they're changing our rights."

One speaker in the closing panel asserted that Americans are "born tired of equality," and that we only live up to our values when we are able to illustrate that the need to do so is urgent.  To quote 17-year-old Jody Leong, winner of our Kids Speak Out essay contest, "The time is now."

Rollback Will Affect the 'Jena Six'

Back in September 2006, a group of African-American students chose to sit under the 'white tree' at their Louisiana high school. The following day, three nooses were found hanging from the bows of the same tree. In response, school officials suspended the three white students who were found responsible.  The local prosecutor 'declined to charge' the white students.

The six black students then allegedly beat up a white student to the point of unconsciousness, although he was released from the hospital and was well enough to attend a school function that same evening. The same prosecutor then saw that these six young men were each charged with attempted murder in the second degree, which was later reduced to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy.   

Mychal Bell was only 16 years old at the time of the schoolyard fight, yet he was convicted by an all-white jury and faced up to 22 years of imprisonment. Given that he was wrongfully tried as an adult, the charges against him have been vacated, but he remains in an adult prison. The charges against the remaining five men are still pending.

Today, thousands of people descended upon the town of Jena, LA to rally in support the young men known as the 'Jena Six.' The protesters in Jena and those who have organized corresponding events around the country hope to highlight the unjust treatment received by these young men who were victims of malicious and selective prosecution. The Jena Six have become symbolic of the racism that still pervades our criminal justice system, as well as our media.

Despite months of public outcry among the black blogosphere and defenders of civil rights, mainstream media have been very slow to report on the Jena Six. The New York Times only picked up the story yesterday, and CNN has managed to report on it in a way that normalizes the unfair racial dynamics at issue.

Because of the rollback of civil rights in the area of prosecutorial misconduct, the students in this case may never be able to seek justice against this prosecutor for unfair prosecution.  More to come on two critical Supreme Court cases that rolled back the rights of people victimized by overzealous prosecutors.

Upcoming Conference: "Why We Can't Wait: Reversing the Retreat on Civil Rights"

Registration is now open for the upcoming conference entitled “Why We Can't Wait: Reversing the Retreat on Civil Rights,” on October 19-20, 2007, in Durham, North Carolina. The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights is pleased to co-convene this conference in an effort to educate, raise awareness and build alliances to protect and preserve equal justice, fairness, and opportunity.  We hope to see you there!

Events, all around the country!

Check out these events, from all around the country. Some fun, some serious, all progressive. Send us yours at [email protected]!