COMMUNITY JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
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HIGHLIGHTS MLK: A Transforming Connection Dr. Martin Luther King, like the language of the civil rights movement, has been expropriated by people whose actions dishonor his ideals. In the welter of convenient platitudes and sanctimonious pronouncements by politicians who scorn affirmative action and cut services to the poor, it’s easy to lose the true heart and meaning in his words. Click here to read the entire article. |
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FEATURES Securing a Voice in the Aftermath of the Storm By Ishmael Muhammad, Staff Attorney, Advancement Project In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, organizers, lawyers and communications professionals have become a formidable joint force in protecting the rights of residents who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Advancement Project has worked closely with the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF), a grassroots New Orleans-based organization, and the working groups of PHRF to ensure that those most devastated by the disaster play a leading role in the decision-making on how Gulf Coast communities are reconstructed. To that end, Advancement Project has taken varied legal action to help ensure that survivors who have been displaced by the disaster are able to return to their homes if they choose. Click here to read the entire story. The World After Katrina: Eyes Wide Shut? By: Professor Peter Edelman, Georgetown University Law Center for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (December, 2005) Hurricane Katrina put the spotlight on poverty in this country in a number of ways: It showed us the faces behind poverty; it forced us to face the continued existence of poverty itself in the twenty-first century; and it forced us to acknowledge the link between race and poverty in the Gulf Region. This paper examines the pervasiveness of poverty in the United States in the framework of low-wage work and the concentrated poverty of the inner city. To access the paper, visit: www.civilrights.org/issues/labor/details.cfm?=38855. |
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NEWSMAKERS Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR) takes on FEMA in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Nearly two-and-one-half months post Hurricane Katrina, some displaced Gulf Coast residents were still struggling with FEMA’s lackluster response to their needs. Despite the fact that many displaced residents had yet to resolve their FEMA claims or find new long term housing, FEMA intended to end short-term housing assistance on November 30, 2005 – just in time for the holidays. Under severe public scrutiny, FEMA extended the deadline until January 7, 2006 – but only for particular states. As a result, advocates came together to protect the rights of individuals who had not weactyet received FEMA assistance or had been wrongfully denied, in addition to those who had been unable to apply due to inaccessibility to the organization. LCCR attorneys filed a class action suit against FEMA to prevent, among other things, the termination of temporary housing assistance for individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and were successful in extending the deadline until February 7, 2006 (McWaters, et al vs. FEMA, Civil Action No. 05-5488, 12.12.05). The case is a significant victory –and a good read. It summarizes the impact of the disaster on largely poor communities of color and FEMA’s rush to eliminate the federally mandated commitment of assistance. Race Matters Op-Ed by Judith Browne, Co-director of Advancement Project The lurid images of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina have taught us many lessons about this country. While many of us wrung our hands in despair as we watched, feeling helpless and distraught by the suffering of the people of New Orleans, nearby parishes, Mississippi and Alabama, we had to stop and think about where this moment stood in the history of this great so-called Super Power...Click here to read more. |
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POINTS OF INTEREST Creating a Fair Playing Field for Consumers: The Need for Transparency in the US-Mexico Remittance Market By The Appleseed Foundation (December 2005) Moving money across borders is a rapidly growing US-based business. The money flowing from the United States to Mexico alone represents the largest remittance market in the entire world. Mexican immigrants are expected to send as much as $20 billion to Mexico and to expend a startling $948 million in fees and other costs to get it there. These numbers becoming painfully important when one considers that as many as 46 percent of the remittance senders earn less than $30,000 per year while the majority of those receiving the funds have a monthly income of $370 or less. To view the complete report visit: http://www.appleseeds.net/download/Remittance_Study FINAL.PDF. Blurring the Lines: A Profile of State and Local Police Enforcement of Immigration Law By Hannah Gladstein, Annie Lai, Jennifer Wagner and Michael Wishnie for The Migration Policy Institute of New York University School of Law (December 2005) Throughout any given year, thousands of police officers at the local level rely on the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database to provide possible additional information on the criminal background of arrestees and detainees – including potential immigration violations. This report finds that as many as forty-two percent of NCIC immigration violation “hits” were in fact false positives. To access the full report, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/2005)12_08.php. |
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CASE STUDIES/SUCCESS STORIES Drop-Outs or Push-Outs: Students Vote with Their Feet By Padres Unidos (January 2006) In more than 15 years of work with parents and students in Denver, Colorado, we’ve learned that the word “dropout” is absolutely the wrong word for the crisis in our schools. What is happening are push-outs, the end result of low-income students and students of color being systematically underserved by public schools. Denver Public Schools is one of the first majority-minority districts in Colorado – 57 percent of our students are Latino, 19 percent are Black, and 20 percent white. According to the district, the official dropout rate for Denver Public Schools is 4.6 percent; by race, Black students are at the district average, and Latinos have a dropout rate of 5.3 percent. Padres Unidos provides an analysis and demands a remedy. Miami Workers Center: Holistic Approach to Economic Justice By Kim Fellner (January 2006) Miami Workers Center began in 1999 with a focus on economic justice for low-wage workers. They organized welfare recipients in public housing and challenged the welfare-to-work system of dead-end jobs paying miserable wages – winning childcare subsidies, transportation services, training, and a grievance procedure. But as gentrification and “revitalization” threatened to eradicate the largely African American housing projects and displace the community, the Center deepened its analysis and broadened its scope to build a more holistic vision of civil rights and economic equity. Environmental Justice in Northern Manhattan: Furthering the Quest for Beloved Community By Swati Prakash, Environmental Health Director & Cecil Corbin-Mark, Director of Programs, WE ACT (January, 2006) In describing the goals of his newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “the ultimate aim of SCLC is to foster and create the ‘beloved community’ in America, where brotherhood is a reality.” It is the vision of a beloved community that fuels struggles for environmental justice across the country and around the world. Although in many ways the environmental justice movement is one that has been defined by its challenges – the struggle to eliminate the disproportionate burden of environmental exposures and degradation faced by communities of color and low-income – at its heart, environmental justice is about creation and sustenance of healthy, economically vibrant and sustainable communities. |
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FUNDING RESOURCES AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES This updated list provides information about a few of the funding resources and job opportunities 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. |
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CJRC CALENDAR Please email us at cjrc@advancementproject.org with information on events of interest. |
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MAPPING THE LITERATURE We encourage you to visit our updated bibliography (partially annotated) of recent publications and articlesof interest to racial justice advocates. This bibliography features a dynamic array of publications spanning several exciting topics. The subject areas for this volume are as follows:
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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. |
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