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Saturday, October 15, 2016
NAACP Board of Directors support moratorium on charters
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Jesse Jackson (our @RevJJackson): Counting my blessings at age 75
BY JESSE JACKSON
October 4, 2016
Blessed are those who plant seeds in the faith that others might enjoy the
forest. This Saturday is
my 75th birthday. I have been blessed to see how many of the seeds we planted
have taken root and turned to sturdy trees.October 4, 2016
I was born in Greenville, S.C., to an unwed teenage mother. I grew up in a home poor in resources but rich in love, supported by a loving family, a tight community and a strong church.
Yet we quickly learned that we were like birds in a cage, caught in the bars of segregation. I went to segregated schools with double shifts. Often we had one book for six of us. Public spaces — bathrooms, water fountains, pools — were closed to us. We sat at the back of the bus. We saw no black police officers or firefighters, no black car dealers. We were expected to adjust our hopes down to fit our circumstances.
But change was in the air and we rattled the bars of that cage. My parents, classmates, teachers and minister instilled high hopes and expectations. My classmates and I chafed at the limitations. Sit-ins began to take place across the South. As a college student in Greensboro, N.C., I helped lead demonstrations to desegregate the theater and local cafeterias. After being arrested in 1960 for the first time for trying to use a public library in my hometown of Greenville, I lost my fear of jail, experiencing the dignity that comes from standing up — or sitting in — for a cause that is just. I was joined by a partner for life and children to nurture.
I met Dr. King, and was honored to learn at his side. We grew close at Selma. We suffered the sting of de facto segregation in Chicago and its suburbs. We marched, confronting injustice with nonviolent protest. Nonviolence demanded discipline in the face of provocation, love in the face of hate. Many were injured; some gave their lives. The blood of the martyrs haunted us but propelled us. And that movement transformed America.
After Dr. King was taken from us, I fought to make his dream real. But the war on poverty was lost in the rice paddies of Vietnam. Our agenda couldn’t get a hearing. We began a drive to register African-Americans to vote. After seeking out other candidates, I decided to take our case to the American people, running for president in 1984 and 1988. We registered millions, and helped change the national agenda. And 20 years later, I was blessed to be in Grant Park celebrating the election of Barack Obama.
I imagine sometimes the struggle for equal rights as a symphony. The first movement — with the clash of chains and the cannons of war — was to end slavery, culminating in the Civil War, the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution and a Reconstruction that showed the potential of multiracial coalition politics. The second movement began with the drums of reaction — the Klan, the Supreme Court legalizing apartheid, to its shame, 100 years of segregation. But the symphony ends with trumpets hailing the triumph of the civil rights movement — the Supreme Court outlawing segregated schools, the opening of public accommodations, the Voting Rights Act.
Dr. King left us, and the third movement — the movement for equal opportunity and for economic justice — remains unfinished. The racial wealth gap yawns at record levels. Poverty disproportionately blights the lives of too many black mothers and babies. The systemic bias of our criminal justice systems literally takes lives, as we’ve witnessed over and over again. We have a long way to go.
At 75, I see how far we have come. Our progress has always come from struggle and sacrifice. The powerful do not dispense change; the people must demand it. And now, I am buoyed by the movements that are stirring — by Black Lives Matter, the Dreamers, the Fight for $15, and the Democracy movement pushing back against attacks on voting rights and the poison of big money.
In my lifetime, the civil rights movement has made America better. Our diversity is now our strength. Doors once locked have been forced open. We reject those who would divide us along lines of race or religion or region. And we continue to work, to march, to demonstrate and to push for a more perfect union. At 75, I celebrate my blessings.
Get
Informed & Be Social with PUSH!
Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Unacceptable: Native activitsts attacked by oil company guards (Message from Bernie)
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A pipeline for fracked oil that would go from North Dakota to
Illinois must be stopped. Bernie Sanders issued a call to action to stand
with activists who are fighting the Dakota Access pipeline.
Will you add your name to stop this pipeline? Stop this Pipeline »
An oil company is trying to
build a pipeline for fracked oil all the way from North Dakota to Illinois.
It would carry some of the dirtiest oil on the planet and present a
tremendous threat to our planet's fight against climate change.
It's called the Dakota
Access pipeline, and it must be stopped.
Activists led by farmers
and Native American tribal nations are fighting the pipeline with both
grassroots activism and legal tools. Bernie
Sanders issued this call to action to support their work:
"The major global crisis facing our
planet today is climate change. The vast majority of scientists tell us that
climate change is real, it is caused by humans and it is already causing
devastating problems. They say that if we do not aggressively transition our
energy system away from fossil fuels toward energy efficiency and sustainable
energy, the planet we leave our children will be a much less habitable place.
"Like the Keystone XL pipeline, which I
opposed since day one, the Dakota Access fracked oil pipeline will transport
some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet. Regardless of the court’s decision, the Dakota Access pipeline must be
stopped. As a nation, our job is to break our addiction to
fossil fuels, not increase our dependence on oil. I join with the Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe and the many tribal nations fighting this dangerous
pipeline."
When people stand together,
we can defeat the greed of the biggest fossil fuel companies. That's why today we're asking you
to stand with the activists, farmers, and tribal nations opposing the Dakota
Access pipeline.
Something shocking happened
this weekend to the Lakota and Sioux activists who have been protesting the
pipeline in North Dakota. The
private security firm hired by the pipeline company attacked the activists
with dogs and pepper spray.
This is a dangerous
escalation by a company that is apparently so desperate to build its $3.6
billion pipeline for fracked oil it would attack peaceful activists.
Because the pipeline would
go through their land, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other nations have
been leading prayer protests for months. Farmers and activists in the way of
the pipeline have fought the oil company too.
But it's incumbent on
all of us to stand up to this pipeline. For the tribal nations who would have their lands endangered,
for the farmers and residents who would have their water threatened, and for
all of us who need to fight the effects of climate change.
The good news is that we
can win: just this week, another pipeline that would move dirty oil was
canceled after months of pressure from activists. Now we must stop this one
too.
The first step you can
take is to speak out and say you oppose the Dakota Access pipeline and stand
with the activists trying to stop it.
When we all stand up to big
corporations who want to profit off of climate change, we can win. Thanks for
taking action.
In solidarity,
Jeff Weaver
Our Revolution
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