COMMUNITY JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2: APRIL 15, 2004
 
The Community Justice Resource Center is dedicated to supporting the exciting movement among Community Organizers/Activists and Lawyers, to work together in the fight for equal justice. This Newsletter highlights information and resources that are available to assist lawyers AND community groups engaged in creative partnerships to advance racial and social justice ( we call this the 'Community Justice’ approach).

We Invite all users of the CJRC to contact us, via email, with your comments and ideas at cjrc@advancementproject.org.


SPECIAL NEWSLETTER SECTION: BROWN AT 50

Fifty years after the Brown Supreme Court decision called for the integration of schools “with all deliberate speed,” our courts, governments, and many of our citizens still act as if they subscribe to the discredited “separate but equal” theory. The courts declared that segregation based on race is unlawful. However, segregation in educational quality based on poverty continues to be sanctioned by law. The state of public education today prohibits us from celebrating fully. Click here to read this special section of the CJRC Newsletter.


FEATURES

April 15 – 17, 2004: Community Based Lawyering/Community Based Problem Solving are coming to Atlanta, GA at the 2004 Equal Justice Conference!
Bring in the spring with an exciting panel of advocates as they come together to share perspectives on the ways advocates can use the skills and talents they exercise everyday, to help strengthen the community. Advancement Project’s staff attorney Aurora Vasquez will be a panelist on the “Community Problem Solving Advocacy: Next Steps Toward Social Change” workshop. For more information visit: www.nlada.org.

New report by Padres Unidos and Jovenes Unidos
New report by Padres Unidos (Parents United) and Jovenes Unidos (Youth United) takes a hard look at graduation and dropout rates in a predominantly Latino high school in Denver, Colorado and provides strategies and proposed solutions for creating change. For a copy of this report, click here.

Immigrant Access to Driver’s Licenses: A Tool Kit for Advocates
“Immigrant Access to Driver’s Licenses: A Tool Kit for Advocates,” is a
resource jointly produced by many of the country’s leading immigrants’ rights advocacy organizations. This tool kit contains a wide range of powerful information, including: Messages, Messengers and Talking Points; Building Coalitions; Meeting with Legislators; Working with the Media and much more. To obtain a copy of this report, visit: www.nclr.org/policy/immigration/imm_tool_kit.pdf.

NEWSMAKERS

Denver Post Story on Jovenes Unidos' Latest Report
On the heels of the release of their latest report, Jovenes Unidos (Youth United) a group of racial and social justice youth activists in Denver, Colorado raise questions regarding the dropout rate at North High School and the lack of educational opportunities offered to students of color. To read the news story from The Denver Post click here.

Whose Child Left Behind?
By: George Wood
As part of the Bush administration’s education plan — the cleverly named No Child Left Behind Act — states nominate schools for “Blue Ribbon” designation. These are schools that best exemplify the intent of NCLB: making improvements in test scores with all of their students. Click here to read the entire Op-Ed.

FUNDING RESOURCES

Funding/Resource Opportunities for Community Justice Practitioners
This updated list provides information about a few of the funding resources that are available to community justice practitioners. We plan to update this resource periodically as we learn of new opportunities. Please contact us with any opportunities of which you know and we will add them to this new resource. This list includes programs with upcoming deadlines as well as a few opportunities with rolling deadlines.

CASE STUDIES/SUCCESS STORIES

Sentenced to Death: Driving While Black by the Prison & Jail Project

POINTS OF INTEREST

A Look at The Role of Race in Charter Schools
Charter schools have spread rapidly across the country and are often supported with fervent assurances that they can solve problems attributed to school bureaucracies. The article “Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education,” by Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee looks at only one aspect of the charter school story—whether or not these schools offer a less segregated experience than the public schools to the increasing numbers of students they serve. This article details a disappointing set of findings regarding its central question— charter schools are largely more segregated than public schools. According to the article, segregation is worse for African American than for Latino students, but is very high for both. To access the article visit: http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v11n32/.

Brown at 50: The Promise Unfulfilled
This special report includes stories focusing on the role of race in schools today; desegregation efforts in Summerton, South Carolina; school integration efforts in North Carolina and the struggle for equal educational opportunities for Latino students in Chicago. For a copy of this special report, visit: www.edweek.org/sreports/special_reports_article.cfm?slug=brown.htm.

Brown at 50: King’s Dream or Plessy’s Nightmare?
“Brown at 50: King’s Dream or the Plessy Nightmare,” by Professor Gary Orfield and Research Associate Chungmei Lee, considers changes in the country and in the districts directly affected by Brown. It also examines a decade of re-segregation from the Supreme Court’s Dowell v. Oklahoma City (1991) decision, which authorized a return to segregated neighborhood schools, through the 2001-2002 school year and provides new information on the changes in schools where desegregation plans have ended. The data analyzed covers the vast majority of American schools.

For a copy of this report visit: www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu.

New Advancement Project handbook on Restoring Voting Rights in Delaware
Delaware Guide to Restoration of Voting Rights, a recently released handbook, provides detailed guidance on how formerly incarcerated people can regain the right to vote in the state ofDelaware. Although proudly naming itself the “FirstState,”Delawareis one of the last states to retain Jim Crow-era disenfranchisement policies.TheDelawarehandbook is the second in a series targeted to states that currently have statutes that can result in permanent disenfranchisement of formerly incarcerated residents. (A Virginia handbook was published in December 2003.)  Click here to get information about the handbooks.

This newsletter is supported in part by grants from the Program on Law & Society of the Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.