This is an obvious choice for inclusion in this special segment. As a scholar, activist, author, and teacher, Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois’ (1868-1963) contributions to the public discourse on social justice and human rights have arguably been unparalleled by any other scholar in American history. His profound commitment to justice and prophetic analysis of America’s tenuous grasp on racial justice have continued to guide our work in this arena. An outspoken advocate against the convict-lease system, crop-lien system, lynching, and other injustices plaguing people and communities of African descent, we owe a great deal of debt to the intellectual foundation provided by Dr. DuBois. He continues to inspire so many.
For more information about Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, visit the following resources:
Harriet A. Jacobs was an abolitionist and author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a groundbreaking autobiography that chronicles key incidents associated with her life as a slave in North Carolina. Published in 1861, her book was intended to shape the opinions of Americans who did not fully understand the truth of what it meant to be enslaved. Among other abuses, her writings were among the first to publicly uncover the horrors of sexual abuse that took place under slavery. Her patience and strength was a foundation for feminist and “womanist” writers for generations to come.
Martin Robison Delany (May 6, 1812 – January 24, 1885) was an African-American abolitionist from West Virginia. He is commonly noted as the first proponent of American Black Nationalism and emigration to Africa. Delaney was also the first African American field officer in the United States Army. Born free, Delany became literate at an early age, after which he studied medicine under the mentorship of several abolitionist physicians. His commitment to the liberation of enslaved Africans in America and to the recognition of Africa as the spiritual home of African Americans led him to become more politically active. In 1847, Delany met with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison to conceive a newspaper that would eventually become The North Star. In 1963, when President Lincoln established the draft, Delany recruited African American men to the army and was a leader in the formation of the United States Colored Troops and later at the Freedmen’s Bureau, where he continued to advocate for the right of freed African Americans to own land.
For more information about Martin R. Delany:
The Center for Young Women’s Development is in the Community Spotlight!
For over a decade, The Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD) has been working with young women who have been deemed unreachable, unchangeable, and unable to be treated by society and institutions in San Francisco and the nation as a whole. The CYWD has become the nation’s first employment, leadership, and advocacy program run entirely by and for women who, in the wake of experiencing incarceration and poverty, are working to transform their lives and their communities. The CYWD values self-respect and self-determination and encourages all women to embrace sisterhood and spirituality to heal and develop the strength to combat the street economy and resist all forms of oppression.
Take a special note of CYWD’s Girls Detention Advocacy Project, and in particular, Know Justice, a bilingual guide for young people and their families to navigate the juvenile justice system. CYWD is also the publisher of an extremely useful guide for incarcerated mothers. Currently the organization is hosting a community event on May 17th at San Francisco’s City Hall to celebrate the Young Mother’s Bill of Rights, which will be implemented at San Francisco’s Juvenile Justice Center, group homes, schools, social service agencies, residential treatment centers and in surrounding Bay Area counties. For more information about CYWD and how to support their recent developments, please visit www.cywd.org.
The Equal Justice Society is in the Community Spotlight!
The Equal Justice Society (EJS) is a national advocacy organization strategically advancing social and racial justice through law and public policy, communications and the arts, and alliance building. EJS is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to unifying and organizing those who are interested in generating, developing, and supporting innovative legal theories and strategies to eliminate the conservative bias of our legal system.
In just seven years, EJS has accomplished a lot to support an infrastructure to sustain a progressive legal and political agenda. A few of EJS’ accomplishments include: partnering with the California Teachers Association and Kaiser Permanente to address unconscious bias, building effective progressive alliances; creating discourse on government as a source for good ; and commissioning a jazz orchestra to chronicle and interpret many of the significant events and people in civil rights history. As a truly creative force in the legal advocacy community, the Equal Justice Society stands out as an organization and Movement worthy of praise.
You can join the fight for an equal justice society by becoming a member of EJS!
For more information about EJS’ specific programs and membership levels or to learn how you can be a supporter of this important work, please visit http://www.equaljusticesociety.org.
ADVOCATES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS (AEHR)
Founded in 2003 by Monique Harden and Nathalie Walker, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights uses its founders’ combined twenty-five years of legal services, community organizing support, and broad spectrum of public advocacy activities to help numerous communities achieve important environmental justice victories. AEHR is guided by a Board of Directors and Advisory Committee comprised of skilled advocates who have expertise in environmental health policymaking, human rights advocacy, community organizing, social science research, chemistry, industrial engineering, and environmental medicine.
AEHR’s current work revolves around two major areas: defending and advancing the human right to a healthy environment and protecting the human right to return with dignity and justice after Hurricane Katrina. With these overarching approaches to advocating environmental human rights, AEHR helps educate the public and increase their capacity to respond to a number of environmental justice issues, including the human rights abuses against the poor, people of color, and gulf coast residents; human rights reform of governmental responses to disasters; and the Healthy Environment Bill of Rights:
Healthy Environment Bill of Rights
All People Have:
- The right to clean air
- The right to clean water
- The right to live, work, learn, and play in healthy and sustainable places
- The right to legal remedies for a racially discriminatory pollution burden
- The right to precautionary measures that require manufacturers to use safe and sustainable materials, processes, and products that eliminate for minimize toxic emissions and greenhouse gases
- From www.ehumanrights.org
For more information about how you can support Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, please visit: http://www.ehumanrights.org.
THE YOUTH EMPOWERMENT MISSION, INC.
The Youth Empowerment Mission, Inc.
(YEM) was founded in 1995 by Isis Sapp-Grant to provide support and guidance for young people in East New York. Based in Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, YEM is dedicated to creating comprehensive long-term solutions for young people struggling with the influence of street gangs, drugs, and violence by offering them a range of programs and services. YEM offers three core programs – Blossom Program for Girls, Girls in Business, and Be the Change – and an array of services to support the healthy development of young women.
YEM’s strength, in addition to a dedicated staff and unique programs, is its leadership. Isis Sapp-Grant, YEM’s Founder and Executive Director, entered the national spotlight when she appeared on the cover of Essence Magazine in 1996 with the words “Gang Girl” boldly displayed across her body. At 16 years old, Isis was the leader of one of the worst girl gangs in Brooklyn, NY’s history. Today, she uses that experience to teach young women how to thrive and become that “rose which grew from concrete.”
Program Highlight: The Blossom Program for Girls
“Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.”
- Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew From Concrete
The Blossom Program for Girls is the flagship program of the Youth Empowerment Mission.
Research has confirmed that young women who live in high-risk environments marked by poverty, poor health and other environmental hazards are growing increasingly susceptible to truancy, gang involvement, depression and victimization. YEM believes that every girl, regardless of her circumstances, deserves the opportunity to develop her dreams and discover her true purpose in life. Blossom prepares girls to move from crisis to competency by equipping them with the skills and information that support their healthy development.
For more information about the Blossom Program for Girls, or the Youth Empowerment Mission’s other programs, visit http://www.girlsblossom.org.
ELEVATE HOPE FOUNDATION
Co-founded by Sheila E. and Lynn Mabry, the Elevate Hope Foundation (EHF) is dedicated to providing abused and abandoned children with an alternative method of therapy through music and the arts. Through funding special services and arts programs that fulfill the special needs of these children, EHF stands out as champion for providing a strategy to heal families from the physical and emotional wounds inflicted by abuse. Over 65% of all funds are invested at the community level, providing much needed support for children and families who need it most.
Its current beneficiaries include Hollygrove, a program in Los Angeles, California that provides therapeutic, residential and foster care for children removed from their homes by order of the court. EHF also supports the Lincoln Child Center, a residential, educational, and community-based program in Oakland, California. Both programs offer a structured, nurturing environment for children and their families to restore the relationships needed to ensure strong communities.
Program Highlights:
The Elevate Hope Foundation is in the process of developing a Compassion Care Center for the Arts (CCCA), a safe haven for youth and families located in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. The goal of the CCCA is to provide 100 victims of child abuse and non-offending parents or care-givers daily treatment through music, the arts, education, recreation and counseling. The ambitious and honorable goal of this center is to provide intervention services for more than 3,000 children each year.
For more information about the Elevate Hope Foundation and the Compassion Care Center for the Arts, please visit http://www.elevatehope.org.
LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE
