#ground zero center for nonviolent action

[smashpages]

Out this week: Ground Zero Comics (Fantagraphics, $8): 

This collaboration between Fantagraphics, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and EduComics is meant to continue the tradition of the “activist comix” that were popular in the 1970s-80s. The story “addresses nuclear weapons issues as they affect those living in Washington state, and draws attention to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, 20 miles from Seattle, which is home of the world’s largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons.” Contributors include Leonard Rifas, Pat Moriarity, David Lasky, Max Clotfelter and Kelly Froh.

See what else is coming to a comic shop near you this week!

[96thdayofrage]

BEYOND THE MONUMENTS: RACE AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL

BEYOND THE MONUMENTS: RACE AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL

From schoolchildren to historians, visitors to Washington, DC, are drawn to the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and other marble monuments to American freedom. These shining symbols of our democracy reflect our nation as we aspire for it to be. But they tell us little about who we are, to say nothing of the city in which they are located. Venturing beyond Washington’s monumental core to explore DC and its neighborhoods, you’ll see that no city better captures the on­going tensions between America’s expansive democratic hopes and its enduring racial realities. We’ve arranged four “stops” in an imagined itinerary to tell the city’s story through space and time. This is not a walking tour as such, but a visit to any of these areas will help you understand the city and its struggles for racial justice and democracy.

Stop 1: Old Town Alexandria (c. 1800–62)

Today, Alexandria is in Virginia, but in 1800 it was part of the original 10-mile square that became the seat of the federal government. In the 1820s and 30s, Alexandria was home to several slave-trading firms, including Franklin & Armfield, the nation’s largest and most profitable. Its three-story office stood at 1315 Duke Street and served as the nerve center of a massive operation that sold more than 1,000 enslaved people annually.

Early Washington benefited immensely from slavery and the slave trade. Enslaved people worked on every major public construction project, they waited on the men who ran the nation, and they were bought and sold within sight of the Capitol. Even as slavery itself waned in Washington—by 1830 free black people were a majority of the city’s black population—the nation’s capital became America’s largest slave-trading city.

Abolitionists made Washington their top priority. The nation’s capital, they argued, should not be tainted by the sin of slavery, and they deluged congressional mailrooms with thousands of petitions calling for an end to the slave trade in DC—Congress, not the local government, retained ultimate control over the city. As abolitionists gained strength, white Alexandrians engineered an 1846 vote for retrocession, whereby the area west of the Potomac was ceded back to Virginia, taking nearly a third of the District’s land mass. When abolitionists won a ban on the slave trade in DC as part of the Compromise of 1850, the city’s slave dealers simply crossed the Potomac and continued their business in Alexandria. Slavery itself remained alive in the truncated District until April 16, 1862, when Washington’s enslaved people became the first in the nation to be legally emancipated.

Stop 2: LeDroit Park (c. 1865–1941)

Across the Potomac, north from downtown Washington, and across Florida Avenue (formerly Boundary Street) is the neighborhood of LeDroit Park, with Gothic-inspired cottages and elegant Italianate villas sitting back from narrow roads.

Now enveloped by the city, LeDroit Park was Washington’s first post–Civil War residential suburb. The segregated enclave was at the forefront of massive demographic and spatial changes that reordered DC’s racial geography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because all city residents, black and white, had been disenfranchised in 1874, following a brief flowering of interracial democracy during Reconstruction, real estate developers, urban planners, and congressional leaders could act without local democratic accountability. The city became a “national show town” featuring a monumental core of federal buildings surrounded by neighborhoods increasingly segregated by race and class.

When abolitionists won a ban on the slave trade in DC as part of the Compromise of 1850, the city’s slave dealers simply crossed the Potomac to Alexandria.

But the imposition of a new segregated order was never static or uncontested. By the mid-1890s, black residents began to trickle into LeDroit Park and white owners began to trickle out; by World War I, the neighborhood was almost exclusively black. LeDroit Park became home to the city’s best-known black leaders, including educator Anna Julia Cooper, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and activist Mary Church Terrell, whose crumbling home at 326 T Street NW is a National Historic Landmark but cries out for restoration.

Washington at the turn of the 20th century remained a magnet for black migration from the rural South. The city boasted the nation’s largest black community (nearly 87,000 people, almost a third of the city’s population) and offered relatively more opportunities for education and economic advancement than the rest of the South. Home to a small but influential black elite, a thriving black middle class, and strong black public schools, DC embodied the hopes of black America. Local NAACP leader Neval Thomas wrote, “The white man keeps the full weight of his superior numbers, oppressive spirit, and unjust monopoly of political power, hard pressed against this suffering, yet beautiful little world of striving, but we grow to fuller stature in spite of it all.”

Stop 3: Southwest (c. 1874–1960)

Successful strivers have commanded historians’ attention, but three-quarters of black Washingtonians were working people: domestics and hod carriers, janitors and nannies. Many lived in Southwest Washington. Dubbed “The Island” in the mid-19th century, Southwest historically has been isolated physically and culturally from the rest of the city, separated first by the infamous City Canal, then by a set of unsightly railroad tracks, and today by a confusing network of highways and exit ramps.  

Southwest was the home of Perry Carson, a hulking former saloon keeper whose black working-class coalition dominated local Republican patronage politics and infuriated DC elites, black and white, in the decades after disenfranchisement.

Home to 23,000 residents, Southwest remained a vibrant working-class community into the mid-20th century. Urban planners and city boosters, however, saw only “blight.” Working directly with unelected city commissioners and local business leaders, they made Southwest ground zero in a national movement for “urban renewal.”

Beginning in 1954, federal officials bulldozed all of Southwest between Interstate 395 and the waterfront, displacing essentially all the previous residents. Award-winning apartment complexes, such as Charles Goodman’s futuristic River Park development along 4th between N and O Streets, rose atop the rubble of working-class row houses. The area’s demographics flipped. In 1950, Southwest had been 70 percent black and predominantly poor; by 1970 it was nearly 70 percent white and mostly middle-class. Ezekiah Cunningham, the 84-year-old owner of a small grocery store in Southwest since 1907, summed up urban renewal’s effects: “Well, it seems like they’re handin’ out a passel o’ joy and a passel o’ sorrow.”

Stop 4: 14th and U Streets NW (c. 1960–present)

Urban renewal helped catalyze an era of grassroots activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Much of this activism percolated around the intersection of 14th and U Streets NW, the bustling transit hub of a black commercial district that offered blocks of restaurants, theaters, and clubs that catered to black customers. In the 1960s, the area was home to organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and Pride, Inc.  

Increasingly impatient with the slow pace of liberal reform, many black DC residents raged against local authorities and the segregationists who oversaw the city in Congress. Washington Post reporter Ben Gilbert recalled that in 1967, “street disorders requiring police action became regular, almost weekly, occurrences.” The most destructive of these conflicts erupted in April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The riot, which began at this intersection, claimed 12 lives, reduced the city’s black commercial districts to rubble, and required more than 13,000 federal troops to restore order.

White business owners and some middle-class African Americans fled, but a rich assortment of civil rights and Black Power organizations remained, joined by predominantly white New Left activists. They waged pitched battles against exploitative landlords, brutal cops, freeways, rats, and racism. And in 1973, they helped secure for the city the local self-government it had lacked since the end of Reconstruction.

Today the corner of 14th and U Streets is nearly unrecognizable to those who knew it during the heady, hopeful days of a generation earlier, when funk impresario George Clinton dubbed Washington the country’s preeminent “Chocolate City.” After two decades of gentrification, the area boasts high-end condos, upscale businesses, and a robust “foodie” scene. The old SCLC office on the northeast corner of the popular intersection is now occupied by a “boutique steakhouse” offering a $52 rib eye and $13 signature cocktails.

Like the rest of DC, the neighborhood is becoming younger, whiter, and wealthier. More than 70 percent black in the 1970s, Washington no longer has a black majority, and it faces gargantuan and growing racial disparities in wealth and employment—an Urban Institute study found that in 2014 white wealth in DC was 81 times greater than black wealth. Astronomical real estate values make it increasingly difficult for low-income residents to remain in the city.

These changes have rekindled questions of race, power, and accountability that have marked Washington since its inception. As you make your plans for January, we hope you will find time to visit the city beyond the monuments to explore how Washingtonians have grappled with the dilemma that is American democracy.

Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove are the authors of Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, due out from the University of North Carolina Press on November 6.

Editor’s note: The 132nd Annual Meeting of the AHA will take place in Washington, DC, on January 4–7, 2018. In the run-up months to every meeting, Perspectives highlights aspects of local history and points of interest in our host city. Because we will convene in our hometown this year, we’re delighted to be able to present deeper takes on the Capital City’s history and culture. Welcome to DC (as locals call it)!

[dr0mabuse]

Global Appeal to Nine Nuclear Governments

Global Appeal to Nine Nuclear Governments

Target: The presidents, prime ministers, and legislatures of China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

This is an appeal from the people of the world to nine nuclear governments to each commit to a nuclear policy of no first strike, not ever, not for any reason; and to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,…

[christinamac1]

Nuclear weapons now illegal - only rogue states have them, Puget Sound should not!

Nuclear weapons now illegal – only rogue states have them, Puget Sound should not!

Only Rogue States Have Nuclear Weapons,  https://limitlesslife.wordpress.com/2021/01/27/only-rogue-states-have-nuclear-weapons/         By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021 From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going up around Seattle that proclaim…

[megarosan-blog]

Only Rogue States Have Nuclear Weapons

Only Rogue States Have Nuclear Weapons

OpEdNews Op Eds 1/25/2021 at 01:58:27    By David Swanson       (Page 1 of 1 pages) (View How Many People Read This)   1 comment       Become a Fan (140 fans) By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021 From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going…

[notbemoved-blog]

Appreciation - Meredith C. Anding, Jr. (1941 – 2021) and the Tougaloo Nine

Upon first meeting, many a visitor may have been tempted to consider Meredith Coleman Anding, Jr., a reticent, almost opaque, man. Soft spoken, terse yet amiable, sphinxlike, enigmatic. Instead, he was the epitome of John Wayne’s character in The Quiet Man—with a preternatural calm on the surface, but with a fierce, almost primal determination to get what was his due: freedom and the respect that came with it. For this, he will be remembered down through the ages.

For it is Meredith Anding’s name, thanks to its alphabetical primacy, that leads the list of quiet Mississippi freedom fighters that we now know as the Tougaloo Nine. These courageous (and, by their own later admission, a bit naive) college students from nearby Tougaloo College, “stepped into history” (as Tougaloo’s former President Beverly Hogan often said of them) on Monday morning, March 27, 1961, when they calmly entered the Whites-only municipal library in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. It was the first student-led civil rights demonstration in the state, all the more remarkable because it was carried off in the Magnolia State’s capital city, under the noses of the most powerful White supremacist politicians, police force, and spy agency in the country and in an environment of intense racial segregation that had been hardening ever since the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. 

Meredith  Anding’s Tougaloo Nine mug shot on 3/27/1961. [Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH)]

Secretly assisted and urged on by the NAACP’s “Man in Mississippi,” Medgar Evers, Anding and his cohort created shock waves of horror throughout the White community by the simple act of entering a library, selecting books from the shelves, and calmly sitting down to read. Their actions made a mockery of Jackson’s Mayor, Allen C. Thompson, who as President of the American Municipal Association had gone on a nationwide tour to tout his city’s racial amity despite its harsh segregationist strictures.

For their crime, Anding and his four male and four female colleagues were arrested for “Breach of Peace”—a newly coined law in many Southern states that allowed police to intervene if individuals were creating a situation that put someone’s peace of mind in jeopardy. When the police first arrived, they tried to persuade the students to leave on their own volition, hoping to avoid a showdown in court. But Meredith and his fellow Tougalooans ignored the pleas of the cops. Once told they were under arrest, however, all of them stood and began to march out to the waiting police cars, ignoring the police and the rowdy crowd that had gathered to sneer and shout racial epithets at them. 

All Tougaloo Nine participants posed for a celebratory photo once safely back on campus. Pictured from l-r: Joseph Jackson, Geraldine Edwards, James (Sam) Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding, Janice Jackson, Alfred Cook. [Signed photo courtesy of MDAH]

This coordinated action ensured that the group would not be charged with resisting arrest and instead their case would be appealed by the NAACP all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the validity of such “breach of peace” statutes.  Although the case was thrown out on a technicality, nevertheless, the Tougaloo Nine, Meredith Anding among them, would forever stand in dramatic opposition to the false narrative of White Mississippi perpetrated by Thompson and others that “all of our nigras are happy.” Two months later, the Freedom Rides would come to Mississippi and the state would become ground zero for the Movement for Black Equality.

Meredith C. Anding, Jr., was born in 1941 in the small enclave of Myles, Mississippi, about 40 miles southwest of Jackson. The first-born of the Adings lived among extended family for a few years, where he was dubbed with the nickname “Junior Man.” His parents moved to the state capital when Meredith was just five years old. He attended a variety of segregated schools in Jackson, including Adams Economy—a small church school—Sally Reynolds Elementary, and Isable Middle School, and graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1958. Anding attended Jackson State College, not far from his family’s home, for one year and then transferred to Tougaloo in the fall of 1959 to begin his sophomore year.

Meredith’s civil rights bona fides were something of a family affair. Though his mother Nellie was unassuming and reserved—a trait the quiet Junior Man adopted—her sister, Meredith’s aunt A.M.E. Logan, was a forceful personality who involved herself in every conceivable method of citizen activism throughout the 1950s and 1960s. When the Jackson Branch of the NAACP reconstituted itself in the late 1950s after a long period of dormancy, Logan served as the elected secretary of the group and went door to door, even while pregnant, to drum up new members for what was considered by most White Mississippians as a radical Communist agitation group. Later she served as the chapter’s hospitality chair, welcoming various dignitaries—including the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.—to her home. Anding, who lived nearby, was present at many early Mississippi civil rights gatherings.

Meredith Anding pointing to his image in a floor-to-ceiling mural of the Tougaloo Nine leaving the Jackson Municipal Library with police escort. The mural was installed in the Bennie G. Thompson Academic and Civil Rights Research Center on Tougaloo College Campus. [Photo: M.J. O’Brien]

It was Anding’s father, impressed with his sister-in-law’s activism, who signed young Meredith and his sister up for membership in the newly forming West Jackson Youth Council, the youth arm of the NAACP. The group would meet at the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street in the conference room adjacent to the office of Mississippi’s civil rights leader. “Medgar would come over and talk to us every meeting when he was around,” Anding recalled in an oral history interview. As for his own budding role, Anding saw his participation “as kind of a duty,” he said. “I felt obligated to go to meetings and to participate because most of the kids my age weren’t willing to.”

The young activist benefitted from his closeness with both his aunt and with Evers. On several occasions he was chosen to represent the West Jackson Youth Council at gatherings of NAACP youth from throughout the South. It was at these sessions that he became aware of the possibilities that real activism held. “Most other kids from other states had already participated in some kind of protest activities,” he recalled. “It was there that we started thinking, ‘OK, we really have to do something as Mississippians.’”

Indeed, upon returning from one of these week-long sessions, Anding and his cousin, A.M.E.’s son Willis Logan—serving as president of the Youth Council—decided in the summer of 1960 that some form of protest needed to occur in Jackson. They headed over to the Jackson Zoo and sat on a bench reserved for Whites only. The police were called, but nothing came of the infraction. The youth were just scolded and told to go home. The incident didn’t even make it into the newspapers. But Meredith had had his first taste of dissent against the established segregationist order—and his first scrape with the police, as well. Thus, he was not intimidated when the call came to participate the following March in the library sit-in.

Many of the Tougaloo Nine returned in August 2017 to Jackson for the unveiling of the Mississippi Freedom Trail marker commemorating their historic “read-in.” Pictured L-R: Beverly Hogan, then-President of Tougaloo College; Meredith Anding; Alfred Cook; Geralding Edwards Hollis; Ethel Sawyer Adolphe; Janice Jackson; Albert Lassiter; and James Bradford. (Gentleman at far right, unidentified.) [Anding family photo]

Like his other eight colleagues, Anding endured more than 30 hours in jail after his arrest for the library protest, including an arduous interrogation by detectives intent on pinning the lawless “read-in” on Medgar Evers. Despite repeated and harsh questioning, neither Anding nor his accomplices ever gave up any information that might incriminate their leader. Anding’s steely reserve and inbred confidence was something of a shock to the White detectives.  “Your mother would be ashamed of you!” the cops admonished him. “No, she wouldn’t,” Anding calmly volleyed.  “Why not?” they persisted. “Because my father pays taxes and I have a right to go to the library.”

Because of his participation in Mississippi’s first student-led civil rights demonstration, Anding lost his funding for college, which was being provided by a local church group, and was forced to suspend his education. Undeterred, he moved to Chicago for a year, then volunteered to serve in the Air Force security force. After four years, mostly spent in Turkey, Anding returned to Tougaloo and completed his Bachelor of Science degree with a specialty in Mathematics. He also gained acceptance into graduate school at the State University of New York at Buffalo for an advanced degree in Math. He met his wife Maurice while in grad school and the two forged a lifelong partnership. They stayed in Buffalo and made careers teaching mathematics and designing teaching protocols to help youth learn higher mathematics principles.

For their efforts, each of the Tougaloo Nine were awarded keys to the City of Jackson on October 14, 2006, 45 years after their historic nonviolent protest. [Key in Meredith Anding Collection]

Meredith Anding died on Friday, January 8, of complications from leukemia. Maurice survives him, as does the Andings’ son Armaan and several grandchildren. Their son Gordon, who had cerebral palsey, died in 2018.

In summing up his breakthrough activism, the example of which would lead many more of Mississippi’s young Blacks to challenge the segregationist system, Anding was, as usual, understated but eloquent. “We were the first to show resistance,” Anding said about the legacy of the Tougaloo Nine. “We were the pace setters. We seized a moment of time that had arrived for the state of Mississippi to move forward.”

Author M.J. O’Brien and Meredith Anding outside of the Anding’s home along the Niagara River in Grand Island, New York. Just like Anding, the seemingly quiet river disguises a powerful undercurrent below the surface. About 10 miles downriver, the placid Niagara River becomes Niagara Falls. 

M. J. O’Brien is the author of the award-winning “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired.” He is currently at work on a book-length narrative study of the Tougaloo Nine and their legacy.

[oceanmantis-blog]

ENG 104-Annotation #3

Douglass, James W. “The U.S. National Security Act of 1947, the Origin of ‘Plausible Deniability’ and the Assassination of JFK.” The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Serendipity, 22 Feb. 2017, www.serendipity.li/nsa_1947.htm. 

Shortly following the Second World War, the United States had a new enemy on their heels: The Soviet Union. With President Harry S. Truman leading the charge against the spread of communism, he gave the Central Intelligence Agency, in the words of Secretary of State George Marshall, an “almost unlimited” scope of power when the foundation was laid for The National Security Act of 1947. In addition, the top-secret NSC 10/2 was approved by Truman on June 18, 1948. This would allow the CIA to perform a broad range of activities including having the power to bypass violations of international law. They would use plausible deniability as their cover while the US government could deny responsibility for them if they were to fail their mission. Lying and hypocrisy became crucial components of plausible deniability and the only person who was unwilling to cooperate with the currently autonomous CIA was John F. Kennedy. His assassination was a scheme planned by the CIA to keep him from promoting peaceful relations with Russia and putting an end the Cold War. 

The goal of this source is to show that even the US government is responsible for putting its citizens in danger in order to enforce a fear tactic in communism; much like the Red Scare and McCarthyism.   

This source is credible because of the peaceful background of the author. James Douglass is a Christian theologian and was a professor at the University of Hawaii. Douglass was a pacifist who was involved in the civil disobedience protest demonstrations against the Vietnam War. He established the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Washington and Mary’s House in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to writing JFK: The Unspeakable in 2008, he is known for writing a number of books dealing with anti-violence in the 1960s such as The Non-Violent Cross: A Theology of Revolution (1968) and Peace and The Human Revolution: A Search for Wholeness (1969). 

I plan on using this source to display plausible deniability and the kind of detrimental effects it had on the United States during the Cold War era. 

[viralhottopics]

Jeff Sessions just became the U.S. attorney general. Here’s what to do next.

On Feb. 8, 2017, Sen. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as our nation’s next attorney general in a final vote of 52-47. The Republican from Alabama abstained from voting for himself, and one Democrat voted for him.

Despite resistance and pushback from many organizations including an open letter from 1,424 law professors from 180 universities in 49 states asking to reject Sessions on the grounds that “it is unacceptable for someone with Senator Sessions record to lead the Department of Justice,” testimony from civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), a different hearing 30 years ago when a bipartisan group of eight Democrats and two Republicans voted to reject his appointment to the federal bench due in part to a black lawyer testifying that Sessions called him “boy,” evidence of his ongoing relationship with problematic organizations (*cough* white supremacists *cough*) Sessions was voted into office.

Presumably, for the next four years, he will be President Donald Trump’s chief law enforcement officer, overseeing how the laws are interpreted around immigration, elections, the War on Drugs, you name it.

It means the next few years could be challenging, to say the least.

Here are 19 real things you can do right now to make sure our justice system is working for everyone.

1. First of all: Dont freak out. Dont panic. Dont give up hope.

We’ve lived through a lot in our short time on this planet. The world didnt end when Bush was in charge. Obama didnt burn civil rights to the ground either or take away everyone’s guns. Youre still here. And there are ways to push back. Heck, some judges are already helping with that.

2. Maybe youve already donated to the ACLU. But there are other organizations that need your support too.

The ACLU has already raised six times what they normally do online in a year. Which is awesome.

Thanks to overwhelming support, we broke online records http://bit.ly/2oClpEl http://bit.ly/2oJ6hSs

ACLU National (@ACLU) January 31, 2017

But there are so many other organizations doing important work too, and they aren’t getting the same attention the ACLU has garnered in recent weeks. So, if you can swing it, help out organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, and ProPublica that are also doing important work and could use the money too.

3. Support organizations led by people of color who are fighting for justice and equality on the ground.

Organizations like Black Youth Project 100 are creating the next generation of black leaders. There are a lot of brilliant and talented people of color out there doing super-smart things to help make our country more equitable with a focus on racial justice. But fighting for equality and justice isnt something that tends to be a huge moneymaker, so many people do it with little or no compensation.

Fortunately, The Safety Pin Box recently came onto the scene. It’s an amazing business with two important goals: 1. to turn white allyship into meaningful action toward racial justice and 2. more importantly, to fund black women who are doing hard work to change things for the better. The majority of proceeds from their monthly subscriptions are gifted to black female organizers who are doing said work. Their work will be key with Sessions in charge. Like their Facebook page if you want to learn more. And then subscribe. (If you need to know why you should subscribe, read this.)

4. Be ready for the midterm elections in 2018.

Take a few minutes right now to set a calendar reminder to vote so you can let the candidates who did (or didn’t) vote for Sessions and who are up for re-election in 2018 know exactly how you feel about that. Were still dealing with election fatigue from a tumultuous 2016, but midterms really are just around the corner. Stay informed and get involved. And make sure you vote.

Remember, Sessions has a history of prosecuting people who help others vote, as Evelyn Turner experienced firsthand.

Which brings us to

5. Support organizations that help protect peoples voting rights.

Sessions has a history of being a little aggressive about opposing voter rights. In 2013, he called the gutting of the Voting Rights Act “good news for the South.” The GOP has already started to take steps to eliminate the election commission that helps states protect the vote.

So check out organizations that report about and protect the vote, like Let America Vote, Color of Change, and the Voting Rights Institute.

6. Do you know what Black Lives Matter REALLY represents? Maybe it’s time to refresh your memory.

One of the criticisms often lobbied at any activist movement but especially at the Black Lives Matter movement, unjustifiably is that there is no clear set of goals. That all changed when Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza who founded Black Lives Matter and their allies rolled out their guiding principles document, a comprehensive guide to fighting for racial justice in America. Their website has policy agendas, actions you can take, and ways to get involved on a national and local level.

Another organization, Campaign Zero, also has a platform specifically addressing how to reform police departments, offering solutions that will make life better for all involved. If you are a white person looking to get involved, you might also want to check out Showing Up for Racial Justice, which has local chapters across the country.

7. Support organizations that are acting as watchdogs of the Justice Department.

Speaking of policing and crime, Sessions has a history of being a hardliner who prefers harsh sentences for even nonviolent crimes. The Brennan Center for Justice has been keeping track of his long record of filling prisons instead of rehabilitating offenders. Sessions has been very hesitant to let the federal government help reform city and state police departments. Hes blocked common-sense sentencing reforms that even Republicans wanted to implement. And hes a fan of private prisons.

We wouldnt know that without checking out organizations like the Brennan Center. So Like them on Facebook, and, if you can, donate to help protect folks.

8. Take some time to learn about the Innocence Project and the Equal Justice Initiative.

About 1 in 25 people sentenced to death in the United States ultimately would be exonerated for a false conviction (if time on death row were unlimited). The Innocence Project is on the front lines of death penalty reform, helping to get innocent people who are wrongly convicted off of death row.

Then, for those who actually did commit crimes in a system that is fundamentally broken, the Equal Justice Initiative is there to call out bonkers things like the fact that taxpayers spend $182 billion a year on mass incarceration or that there are 10,000 children stuck in adult prisons as we speak.

Learn more about them the easy way. Like the Innocence Project and Equal Justice Initiative on Facebook.

9. Learn about hate groups, since Trump no longer is interested in what they do.

A recent survey of law enforcement agencies discovered that law enforcement is far more worried about right-wing extremism and terrorism hurting Americans than the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Since the Trump administration decided not to track terrorism by right-wing or white extremist groups, make sure youre following the Southern Poverty Law Center. They keep track of hate groups in America.

10. Consider running for office locally. Yes, you. You can do it.

As they say, all politics is local. In many ways, whats happening on Main Streets across America is just as consequential as whats happening in Washington. Start attending your local city council meetings, and better yet run for office on the promise to uphold civil rights and social justice in every way you know how.

GOOD NEWS! Since Nov 8, more than 4,000 women have contacted @emilyslist bc they want to run for office someday. http://bit.ly/2oJ96my

ann friedman (@annfriedman) February 8, 2017

11. Support groups that fight for immigrant rights.

A lot of immigration groups will be under attack in the Trump White House. We know this because Trump has already picked a fight with the entire judicial branch of government over his poorly thought-out Muslim ban.

Check out Informed Immigrant for resources. The National Immigration Law Center is on the front lines of the Muslim ban in assisting immigrants with legal advice. The Black Alliance for Just Immigration is helping fight for the rights of black immigrants. Mijente is on the ground, confronting immigrant abuse by government at the source.

12. National organizations get a lot of attention, but did you know many of them have local branches that need help too?

There are lots of smaller groups doing great work protecting and ensuring progress on social justice at the state and local levels (the ACLU has local affiliates, for starters). Ask around. Do some digging.

Also check out Movement 2017, where you can find lots of local organizations that need financial and volunteer support, and see if there are ways for you to get involved and support these efforts in your own backyard.

13. Share this video of Sen. Elizabeth Warren reading the 1986 letter written by Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions for a position as a federal judge.

Ya know, the one most GOP senators dont want you to hear. King penned a powerful piece in 1986 specifying why Sessions controversial record suppressing the rights of black voters in Alabama should disqualify him from a federal judgeship. Warren tried to read the letter aloud before the Senate but was silenced by the GOP-controlled chamber.

Do her a favor watch and share the video below:

During the debate on whether to make Jeff Sessions the next Attorney General, I tried to read a letter from Coretta Scott King on the floor of the Senate. The letter, from 30 years ago, urged the Senate to reject the nomination of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. The Republicans took away my right to read this letter on the floor – so I’m right outside, reading it now.

Posted by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday, February 7, 2017

14. Learn about gerrymandering with this super-fun video from “Adam Ruins Everything” so you know what’s at stake in 2018 … and 2020.

Show this video about gerrymandering to anyone who says gerrywhatnow? when you bring up the way voting districts can be redrawn to create party majorities. Sessions will probably be doing everything he can to protect this process.

By the time her movie ends, Ms. DuVernay has delivered a stirring treatise on the prison industrial complex through a nexus of racism, capitalism, policies and politics. It sounds exhausting, but its electrifying. Manohla Dargis’ review of “13th” in The New York Times

16. Make sure your bank isn’t investing in private prisons, and divest from it if you can.

Several large U.S. banks namely Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, and U.S. Bancorp help finance debt by CoreCivic and The GEO, two major private-prison companies. In other words, your bank may be helping keep highly unethical private prisons which rely on an increasing supply of inmates to make their money thriving. Divest from the banks that support this practice, and spread the word.

17. Support survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Sessions isnt exactly known for being a champion for women and survivors of sexual violence. In 1994, he voted against the Violence Against Women Act a fact that wasnt lost on Sen. Patrick Leahy, who pressed Sessions on his “no” vote earlier this month.

There are a lot of ways to support local women’s shelters doing vital work in protecting and advocating for survivors, whether it be volunteering your time with them or donating to shelters in your area. Also, take the time to get to know orgs fighting to create better policies on college campuses, like Know Your IX and SurvJustice.

We are. We’re not going anywhere. http://bit.ly/2oCnY99

End Rape on Campus (@endrapeoncampus) February 7, 2017

18. Help pay off the often steep legal fees for those searching for justice.

Funded Justice, an online crowdsourcing platform, allows people to raise money from friends, family, and strangers to help pay their legal fees. Unfortunately, while justice is blind, our justice system isnt; if you have the money to pay for the best lawyers and legal resources, youre more likely to get the results you want. This means low-income defendants arent given a fair shake. (For more on this, check out the documentary “Gideon’s Army.”) Funded Justice helps level the playing field.

19. Follow writers who are speaking out about our broken systems.

Read Ijeoma Oluos open letter to white people who want to help. Read Rewires list of grassroots legal all-stars fighting for justice. Expand your mind and check out our list of 23 incredible black women activists. Seek out new writers every single day.

We’ve got a long road ahead of us. It’s important to stay sane, stay healthy, and stay informed.

There’s probably going to be a lot of depressing news being thrown at you for the foreseeable future. Don’t block it all out; that’s how they win. They want you to feel overwhelmed. Don’t give them the satisfaction.

You wont know what these organizations are doing if they arent in your feed, your email inbox, or your mailbox. Take the time to go back through this article and Like the Facebook pages of the orgs that resonate with you. It’ll only take five minutes out of your day. It’ll help you keep up to date with what we’re up against.

And just to say it: If you do feel overwhelmed, take a break from Facebook when you need to. We’re all gonna need one occasionally. That’s normal.

When that break is over, get back to helping make sure we all live in a more equitable world someday in the future. And make sure to continue to share important information with your community. Share, donate, volunteer, and support folks who are doing the hard work on the ground.

Read more: http://u.pw/2oCcTFk

from Jeff Sessions just became the U.S. attorney general. Here’s what to do next.

[tragicbooks]

Jeff Sessions just became the U.S. attorney general. Here's what to do next.

Do something with the emotions you are feeling right now.

<br>

On Feb. 8, 2017, Sen. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as our nation's next attorney general in a final vote of 52-47. The Republican from Alabama abstained from voting for himself, and one Democrat voted for him.

Despite resistance and pushback from many organizations — including an open letter from 1,424 law professors from 180 universities in 49 states asking to reject Sessions on the grounds that "it is unacceptable for someone with Senator Sessions’ record to lead the Department of Justice," testimony from civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), a different hearing 30 years ago when a bipartisan group of eight Democrats and two Republicans voted to reject his appointment to the federal bench due in part to a black lawyer testifying that Sessions called him "boy," evidence of his ongoing relationship with problematic organizations (*cough* white supremacists *cough*) — Sessions was voted into office.

Presumably, for the next four years, he will be President Donald Trump's chief law enforcement officer, overseeing how the laws are interpreted around immigration, elections, the War on Drugs, you name it.

It means the next few years could be challenging, to say the least.

Here are 19 real things you can do right now to make sure our justice system is working for everyone.

1. First of all: Don’t freak out. Don’t panic. Don’t give up hope.

We've lived through a lot in our short time on this planet. The world didn’t end when Bush was in charge. Obama didn’t burn civil rights to the ground either or take away everyone's guns. You’re still here. And there are ways to push back. Heck, some judges are already helping with that.

2. Maybe you’ve already donated to the ACLU. But there are other organizations that need your support too.

The ACLU has already raised six times what they normally do online in a year. Which is awesome.

Thanks to overwhelming support, we broke online records https://t.co/0AxVLgXlzP https://t.co/Ma0dxRwA26

— ACLU National (@ACLU) January 31, 2017

But there are so many other organizations doing important work too, and they aren't getting the same attention the ACLU has garnered in recent weeks. So, if you can swing it, help out organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, and ProPublica that are also doing important work and could use the money too.

3. Support organizations led by people of color who are fighting for justice and equality on the ground.

Organizations like Black Youth Project 100 are creating the next generation of black leaders. There are a lot of brilliant and talented people of color out there doing super-smart things to help make our country more equitable with a focus on racial justice. But fighting for equality and justice isn’t something that tends to be a huge moneymaker, so many people do it with little or no compensation.

Fortunately, The Safety Pin Box recently came onto the scene. It's an amazing business with two important goals: 1. to turn white allyship into meaningful action toward racial justice and 2. more importantly, to fund black women who are doing hard work to change things for the better. The majority of proceeds from their monthly subscriptions are gifted to black female organizers who are doing said work. Their work will be key with Sessions in charge. Like their Facebook page if you want to learn more. And then subscribe. (If you need to know why you should subscribe, read this.)

4. Be ready for the midterm elections in 2018.

Take a few minutes right now to set a calendar reminder to vote so you can let the candidates who did (or didn't) vote for Sessions and who are up for re-election in 2018 know exactly how you feel about that. We’re still dealing with election fatigue from a tumultuous 2016, but midterms really are just around the corner. Stay informed and get involved. And make sure you vote.

Remember, Sessions has a history of prosecuting people who help others vote, as Evelyn Turner experienced firsthand.

Which brings us to…

5. Support organizations that help protect people’s voting rights.

Sessions has a history of being a little aggressive about opposing voter rights. In 2013, he called the gutting of the Voting Rights Act "good news … for the South." The GOP has already started to take steps to eliminate the election commission that helps states protect the vote.

So check out organizations that report about and protect the vote, like Let America Vote, Color of Change, and the Voting Rights Institute.

6. Do you know what Black Lives Matter REALLY represents? Maybe it's time to refresh your memory.

One of the criticisms often lobbied at any activist movement — but especially at the Black Lives Matter movement, unjustifiably — is that there is no clear set of goals. That all changed when Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza — who founded Black Lives Matter — and their allies rolled out their guiding principles document, a comprehensive guide to fighting for racial justice in America. Their website has policy agendas, actions you can take, and ways to get involved on a national and local level.

Another organization, Campaign Zero, also has a platform specifically addressing how to reform police departments, offering solutions that will make life better for all involved. If you are a white person looking to get involved, you might also want to check out Showing Up for Racial Justice, which has local chapters across the country.

7. Support organizations that are acting as watchdogs of the Justice Department.

Speaking of policing and crime, Sessions has a history of being a hardliner who prefers harsh sentences for even nonviolent crimes. The Brennan Center for Justice has been keeping track of his long record of filling prisons instead of rehabilitating offenders. Sessions has been very hesitant to let the federal government help reform city and state police departments. He’s blocked common-sense sentencing reforms that even Republicans wanted to implement. And he’s a fan of private prisons.

We wouldn’t know that without checking out organizations like the Brennan Center. So Like them on Facebook, and, if you can, donate to help protect folks.

8. Take some time to learn about the Innocence Project and the Equal Justice Initiative.

About 1 in 25 people sentenced to death in the United States ultimately would be exonerated for a false conviction (if time on death row were unlimited). The Innocence Project is on the front lines of death penalty reform, helping to get innocent people who are wrongly convicted off of death row.

Then, for those who actually did commit crimes in a system that is fundamentally broken, the Equal Justice Initiative is there to call out bonkers things like the fact that taxpayers spend $182 billion a year on mass incarceration or that there are 10,000 children stuck in adult prisons as we speak.

Learn more about them the easy way. Like the Innocence Project and Equal Justice Initiative on Facebook.

9. Learn about hate groups, since Trump no longer is interested in what they do.

A recent survey of law enforcement agencies discovered that law enforcement is far more worried about right-wing extremism and terrorism hurting Americans than the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Since the Trump administration decided not to track terrorism by right-wing or white extremist groups, make sure you’re following the Southern Poverty Law Center. They keep track of hate groups in America.

10. Consider running for office locally. Yes, you. You can do it.

As they say, all politics is local. In many ways, what’s happening on Main Streets across America is just as consequential as what’s happening in Washington. Start attending your local city council meetings, and — better yet — run for office on the promise to uphold civil rights and social justice in every way you know how.

🚨 GOOD NEWS! 🚨 Since Nov 8, more than 4,000 women have contacted @emilyslist bc they want to run for office someday. https://t.co/hCUJKdkZJY

— ann friedman (@annfriedman) February 8, 2017

11. Support groups that fight for immigrant rights.

A lot of immigration groups will be under attack in the Trump White House. We know this because Trump has already picked a fight with the entire judicial branch of government over his poorly thought-out Muslim ban.

Check out Informed Immigrant for resources. The National Immigration Law Center is on the front lines of the Muslim ban in assisting immigrants with legal advice. The Black Alliance for Just Immigration is helping fight for the rights of black immigrants. Mijente is on the ground, confronting immigrant abuse by government at the source.

12. National organizations get a lot of attention, but did you know many of them have local branches that need help too?

There are lots of smaller groups doing great work protecting and ensuring progress on social justice at the state and local levels (the ACLU has local affiliates, for starters). Ask around. Do some digging.

Also check out Movement 2017, where you can find lots of local organizations that need financial and volunteer support, and see if there are ways for you to get involved and support these efforts in your own backyard.

13. Share this video of Sen. Elizabeth Warren reading the 1986 letter written by Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions for a position as a federal judge.

Ya know, the one most GOP senators don’t want you to hear. King penned a powerful piece in 1986 specifying why Sessions’ controversial record suppressing the rights of black voters in Alabama should disqualify him from a federal judgeship. Warren tried to read the letter aloud before the Senate but was silenced by the GOP-controlled chamber.

Do her a favor — watch and share the video below:

During the debate on whether to make Jeff Sessions the next Attorney General, I tried to read a letter from Coretta Scott King on the floor of the Senate. The letter, from 30 years ago, urged the Senate to reject the nomination of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. The Republicans took away my right to read this letter on the floor - so I'm right outside, reading it now.

Posted by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday, February 7, 2017

14. Learn about gerrymandering with this super-fun video from "Adam Ruins Everything" so you know what's at stake in 2018 ... and 2020.

Show this video about gerrymandering to anyone who says “gerrywhatnow?” when you bring up the way voting districts can be redrawn to create party majorities. Sessions will probably be doing everything he can to protect this process.

15. Watch the documentary "13th" on Netflix (or read "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," the book that inspired the film).

This Oscar-nominated documentary was directed by Ava DuVernay ("Selma") and currently boasts a 97% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its title comes from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States."

If you want to better understand the way America’s modern system of mass incarceration is rooted in slavery and racism, "13th" is an eye-opening trip through history.

“By the time her movie ends, Ms. DuVernay has delivered a stirring treatise on the prison industrial complex through a nexus of racism, capitalism, policies and politics. It sounds exhausting, but it’s electrifying.” — Manohla Dargis' review of "13th" in The New York Times

16. Make sure your bank isn't investing in private prisons, and divest from it if you can.

Several large U.S. banks — namely Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, and U.S. Bancorp — help finance debt by CoreCivic and The GEO, two major private-prison companies. In other words, your bank may be helping keep highly unethical private prisons — which rely on an increasing supply of inmates to make their money — thriving. Divest from the banks that support this practice, and spread the word.

17. Support survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Sessions isn’t exactly known for being a champion for women and survivors of sexual violence. In 1994, he voted against the Violence Against Women Act — a fact that wasn’t lost on Sen. Patrick Leahy, who pressed Sessions on his "no" vote earlier this month.

There are a lot of ways to support local women's shelters doing vital work in protecting and advocating for survivors, whether it be volunteering your time with them or donating to shelters in your area. Also, take the time to get to know orgs fighting to create better policies on college campuses, like Know Your IX and SurvJustice.

We are. We're not going anywhere. https://t.co/KDpCudptCw

— End Rape on Campus (@endrapeoncampus) February 7, 2017

18. Help pay off the often steep legal fees for those searching for justice.

Funded Justice, an online crowdsourcing platform, allows people to raise money from friends, family, and strangers to help pay their legal fees. Unfortunately, while justice is blind, our justice system isn’t; if you have the money to pay for the best lawyers and legal resources, you’re more likely to get the results you want. This means low-income defendants aren’t given a fair shake. (For more on this, check out the documentary "Gideon's Army.") Funded Justice helps level the playing field.

19. Follow writers who are speaking out about our broken systems.

Read Ijeoma Oluo’s open letter to white people who want to help. Read Rewire’s list of grassroots legal all-stars fighting for justice. Expand your mind and check out our list of 23 incredible black women activists. Seek out new writers every single day.

We've got a long road ahead of us. It's important to stay sane, stay healthy, and stay informed.

There's probably going to be a lot of depressing news being thrown at you for the foreseeable future. Don't block it all out; that's how they win. They want you to feel overwhelmed. Don't give them the satisfaction.

You won’t know what these organizations are doing if they aren’t in your feed, your email inbox, or your mailbox. Take the time to go back through this article and Like the Facebook pages of the orgs that resonate with you. It'll only take five minutes out of your day. It'll help you keep up to date with what we're up against.

And just to say it: If you do feel overwhelmed, take a break from Facebook when you need to. We're all gonna need one occasionally. That's normal.

When that break is over, get back to helping make sure we all live in a more equitable world someday in the future. And make sure to continue to share important information with your community. Share, donate, volunteer, and support folks who are doing the hard work on the ground.

<br>

[christinamac1]

Arrests of USA activists protesting against nuclear weapons

Arrests of USA activists protesting against nuclear weapons

Arrests at nuclear sites mark 73rd anniversary of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki http://www.nukeresister.org/2018/08/07/arrests-at-nuclear-sites-mark-73rd-anniversary-of-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/  from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Activists honor Catholic archbishop, who was a prophetic voice for peace, on anniversary of atomic bombingby Leonard Eiger 

[christinamac1]

Catholic action against nuclear weapons

Catholic action against nuclear weapons

Justice Action Bulletin: Catholic worker among protestors breaching nuclear weapons bunker https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/justice-action-bulletin-catholic-worker-among-protestors-breaching-nuclear-weapons, Jul 24, 2018, by Maria Benevento  POULSBO, Washington — The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is planning nearly a week of activities to commemorate the anniversary of the…