Mapping the Literature: Recent Publications of Interest to Racial and Social Justice Advocates
The community justice model is rapidly developing within various areas of expertise. Whatever your interests, we highly recommend the featured articles. Use them to strengthen your own expertise to develop and support your strategies or simply share them with others.
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FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 (JULY 17, 2006)
Civil Rights
Dimming the Beacon of Freedom
By American Civil Liberties Union (June 2006)
Dimming the Beacon of Freedom provides a detailed description of human rights violations in the United States. In addition to the impact of these rights violations on other vulnerable groups in the United States, the report highlights how, in the wake on September 11, 2001, Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, and to some extent all immigrants, were victims of discriminatory targeting by the government. It draws attention to the erosion of the right to privacy, discussing expanded surveillance and the government's growing use of the states secret privilege to avoid accountability for abuses. To view, click: http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/iccprreport20060620.pdf
Democracy
Asian Americans and the Voting Rights Act: The Case of Reauthorization
By Phillip A, Olaya, Glenn D. Magpantay, Nancy W. Yu, and Margaret Fung, Asian American Legal Defense Fund (May 2006)
Much is at stake for the Asian-American community as Congress considers reauthorization of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. As one of the fastest growing populations in the United States, Asian Americans have utilized the VRA to register and vote in record numbers. In particular, the language assistance provisions of Section 203, when correctly implemented, have provided full access to the ballot for Asian-American voters who have yet to master the English language. This report explains how Asian Americans have used the VRA to their advantage and made their voices heard. To view, click: http://www.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF-VRAReauthorization-2006.pdf
Asian Americans at the Ballot Box
By Asian Pacific American Legal Center (June 2006)
To inform efforts to increase political participation in Asian-American communities, Asian Americans at the Ballot Box provides a comprehensive look at Asian-American participation in the November 2004 General Election. Who votes? Who does not? What candidates and ballot measures do Asian Americans support? What assistance do Asian Americans need to become fully engaged in political life? The report presents a unique snapshot of this increasingly influential portion of Southern California’s electorate at an important moment in our country’s history. To view, click: http://apalc.org/demographics/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/04%20Report%20D...
Voting Rights in Texas, 1982-2006
By Nina Perales, Luis Figueroa and Criselda G. Rivas (June 26, 2006)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) has been indispensable to guaranteeing minority voters access to the ballot in Texas. Texas has experienced a long history of voting discrimination against its Latino and African-American citizens dating back to 1845. The enactment of the VRA in 1965 began a process of integrating Latinos, African Americans, and more recently, Asian Americans, into the political structures of Texas. Infringements on minority voting rights persist and noncompliance with the VRA continues at the state and local level. The VRA has proven to be an essential tool for enhancing minority inclusion in Texas. The evidence discussed in this report makes clear that racially discriminatory and exclusionary practices continue to plague the Texas electoral system despite legal challenges and gradual progress. The reauthorization of Sections 5, 203, and the federal observer provisions, are of paramount importance to secure the fundamental right to vote for minority citizens in Texas.
To view, click: http://www.civilrights.org/issues/voting/TexasVRA.pdf
Economics
Banking Immigrant Communities: A Toolkit for Banks and Credit Unions
By Appleseed (February 2006)
This toolkit is designed to highlight areas of importance to potential customers in the immigrant market, explain how banks can offer or better offer services to attract that market, and give examples of banks and credit unions around the country that have successfully used the recommended practices to expand their customer base. To view, click: http://appleseeds.net/servlet/Publications
Civic Contributions: Taxes Paid by Immigrants in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area
By Randolph Capps, Everett Henderson, Jeffrey S. Passel, Michael E. Fix (May 2006)
This report provides estimates on federal, state, and local taxes paid by immigrant households in the Washington DC metropolitan region in 1999-2000. The region’s almost one million immigrant households comprised 21 percent of all households and had $29.5 billion in income, or 19 percent, of the income of all households. Immigrant households paid $9.8 billion, or 18 percent, of the region’s total taxes, even though they had lower incomes on average than non-immigrant households ($78,000 versus $88,000). They contributed almost a quarter of the local taxes collected in the region’s two largest jurisdictions: Montgomery County, Md., and Fairfax County, Va. To view, click: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411338_civic_contributions.pdf
Expanding Immigrant Access to Mainstream Financial Services: Positive Practices and Emerging Opportunities from the Latin American Immigrant Experience
By Appleseed (June 2006)
This paper aims to stimulate a discussion on how best to overcome challenges and build on successes to realize the important social and economic benefits of bringing immigrant communities into the financial mainstream. They outline positive market practices targeting Latin-American immigrants and the needs, opportunities, and next steps for expanding and improving financial services for low- and moderate-income immigrant communities. To view, click: http://appleseeds.net/servlet/Publications
Education/Youth
The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8
By Charles Clotfeller, Helen Ladd, and Jacob Vigdor (June 4, 2006)
The report discusses the reality behind immigration in the United States in reference to immigrant youth and children of immigrants. Studies show that Latino youth score far below non-Latino Whites on achievement tests. The report goes on to explain the reason why Latino youth are not excelling as rapidly. To view, click: http://papers.nber.org/papers/W12207
Families
Children of Immigrants: Facts and Figures
By The Urban Institute (May 2006)
While Congress and the administration debate the future of the 11-12 million unauthorized immigrants, it is important to look also at the more than five million children in families with unauthorized parents. Two-thirds of these children are U.S.-born citizens, a share that increases to 93 percent among those under age six. A new fact sheet presents a statistical portrait of the children of immigrants.
To view, click: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900955_children_of_immigrants.pdf
Gender
Anti-Trafficking Initiative
By Asian American Legal Defense Fund
AALDEF's Anti-Trafficking Initiative, launched in October 2005, provides free legal representation to trafficked women and youth to ensure survivors' access to human services. AALDEF's Anti-Trafficking Initiative currently has outreach and educational resources available in 12 languages: English, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Punjabi, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese. Brochures and quarter-sheet palm cards are available for download.
To view, click: http://www.aaldef.org/anti-trafficking.html
Immigrant Women in the United States: A Demographic Portrait
The American Immigration Law Foundation (Summer 2006)
The migration of women to the United States is characterized by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, over the past 20 years women have comprised a growing share of new legal immigrants admitted into the country, a trend which mirrors the feminization of migration in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. On the other hand, women have constituted a declining share of the U.S. foreign-born population as a whole since 1970. This most likely is due to the fact that the majority of undocumented immigrants entering the country are men, although the numbers of undocumented women are on the rise. This report examines the reasons for the two trends and analyzes the reasons for both. To view, click: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/im_women_summer06.pdf
Policing
Border Insecurity: U.S. Border-Enforcement Policies and National Security
By The American Immigration Law Foundation (Spring 2006)
The U.S. government's efforts to stem undocumented immigration by fortifying the U.S.-Mexico border have increased the profitability of the people-smuggling business and fostered greater sophistication in the smuggling networks through which a foreign terrorist might enter the country. U.S. national security would be better served if undocumented labor migration were taken out of the border-security equation by reforming the U.S. immigration system to accommodate U.S. labor demand. This report discusses the reasons for the increase in border protection and give suggestions on what should be done about the situation.
To view, click: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/border_insecurity_spring06.pdf
Engagement in a Time of Uncertainty
By Nicole J. Henderson, Christopher W. Ortiz, Naomi F. Sugie, Joel Miller (June 2005)
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Arab-Americans have a greater fear of racial profiling and immigration enforcement than of falling victim to hate crimes, according to a national study financed by the Justice Department. The study also concluded that local police officers and federal agents were straining under the pressure to fight terrorism, and that new federal policies in this effort were poorly defined and inconsistently applied. The two-year study, released today by the Vera Institute of Justice, explored the changed relationship between Arab-Americans and law enforcement in the years since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Vera Institute is a nonprofit policy research center based in New York. To view, click: http://www.vera.org/publications/publications_5.asp?publication_id=353
Forcing Our Blues into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement
By Appleseed (January 31, 2006)
The discussion about whether local law enforcement should be enforcing federal immigration law remains a heated public policy debate.And unfortunately, there is no clear legal answer. For decades it has been accepted law—and practice—that state and local police could not enforce civil immigration law (only criminal law). However, in the wake of 9/11, some in Congress have been arguing for an increased role of state and local police in immigration enforcement. Appleseed's report outlines the legal history behind local enforcement of federal immigration laws, and outlines why an increase in this activity is a bad public policy decision. Many police departments, local governments, and organizations around the country are opposing increased local police involvement in federal immigration laws.
To view, click: http://appleseeds.net/servlet/Publications
Race/Culture
California Speaks: Language Diversity and English Proficiency by Legislative District
By Asian Pacific American Legal Center (February 2006)
APALC’s report provides detailed information on language, limited English proficiency, and related characteristics for 20 racial and ethnic groups in every State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional District in California. California Speaks helps policy makers understand how language barriers affect their constituents and aids in developing effective policy solutions. To view, click:
http://apalc.org/demographics/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/APALC_CALIFORNI...
Hispanic Attitudes Toward Learning English
By Pew Hispanic Center (June 7, 2006)
According to this fact sheet compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics, by a large margin, believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society and even more so that English should be taught to the children of immigrants, according to recent surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. To view, click: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/20.pdf
Labor/Workers Rights
The Occupational Status and Mobility of Hispanics
By Rakesh Kochhar, Pew Hispanic Center (Dec 15, 2005)
This research report finds a worsening in the occupational status of Hispanics and a growing gap with respect to Whites during the 1990s. That is surprising because the decade was witness to the longest economic expansion in recent U.S. history. But even as unemployment was on the decline for all racial and ethnic groups, structural shifts in employment across industries contributed to a greater division in the occupational status of Hispanics and Whites. The occupations in which Hispanics are concentrated rank low in wages, educational requirements, and other indicators of socioeconomic status
To view, click: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/59.pdf
Legislation/Reform
Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders – Principles for Immigration Reform
By The Asian Pacific American Legal Center, May 2006
This fact sheet outlines the Asian Pacific American Legal Center’s (APALC) position on the current immigration reform. APALC declares their alliance with other immigrant groups and explains the importance of the unity of all immigrant communities. The fact sheet discusses issues such as families, backlogs, and civil rights. To view, click: http://www.apalc.org/pdffiles/aapi-immigrationprinciples.pdf
More Harm than Good
By The National Employment Law Project (March 2006)
Recently state legislative sessions have seen a large number of anti-immigrant worker legislative proposals, ranging from state level employer sanctions bills to legislation requiring employers of immigrants to register and pay fees. This guide describes some of the anti-immigrant worker provisions currently pending in state legislatures and talking points explaining why these provisions will be bad for workers, bad for communities, and bad for states. Finally, this guide provides some affirmative proposals of steps states can take to ensure that workers are not being exploited and that employers are complying with state labor and employment laws. To view, click: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/MORE%20HARM%20THAN%20GOOD%2Epdf
Senate Approves Sweeping but Flawed Immigration Reform Bill: The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006
By National Immigration Law Center (May 30, 2006)
This informative analysis explains how the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 was passed by Senate and what it entails. The bill is one of the most comprehensive immigration reforms in history; however, some of its measures run contrary to core American values.To view, click: http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/CIR/cir017.htm
Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.: Estimates Based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey
By Jeffrey S. Passel, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center (March 7, 2006)
The March 2005 Current Population Survey shows that there were 11.1 million unauthorized migrants in the United States a year ago. Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006. Using a well-established methodology, this research report offers estimates for the size and certain characteristics, such as age and national origins, of the unauthorized populations. To view, click: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf
U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2005
By Kelly Jeffreys and Nancy Rytina,The Department of Homeland Security (April 2006)
This Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Reportpresents data on the number and characteristics of persons who became Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) in the United States during 2005 . To view, click: http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/publications/USLegalPerm...
Polls
America's Immigration Quandary: No Consensus on Immigration Problem or Proposed Fixes
By Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (March 30, 2006)
Americans are increasingly concerned about immigration. A growing number believe that immigrants are a burden to the country, taking jobs and housing and creating strains on the health care system. Yet the public remains largely divided in its views of the overall effect of immigration. Roughly as many believe that newcomers to the United States strengthen American society as say they threaten traditional American values, and over the longer term, positive views of Latin American immigrants, in particular, have improved dramatically. This report based on polls taken throughout the United States discusses analyzes each side of the immigration debate and possible solutions. To view, click: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/63.pdf
Immigration
By Polling Report.com (May 2006)
The polls featured were conducted by major new stations around the country. All participants were over the age of 18 and were asked the same basic questions regarding their views on immigration in the United States. To view, click: http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm
BOOKS
A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America
By Aristide R. Zolberg (2006)
In A Nation by Design, Aristide Zolberg explores American immigration policy from the colonial period to the present, discussing how it has been used as a tool of nation building. A Nation by Design argues that the engineering of immigration policy has been prevalent since early American history. Zolberg profiles the vacillating currents of opinion on immigration throughout American history, examining separately the roles played by business interests, labor unions, ethnic lobbies, and nativist ideologues in shaping policy. He then examines how three different types of migration--legal migration, illegal migration to fill low-wage jobs, and asylum-seeking--are shaping contemporary arguments over immigration to the United States. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674022181/qid=1151612045/sr=1-254/ref=...
Because I Don't Have Wings: Stories of Mexican Immigrant Life
By Philip Garrison (2006)
Garrison has taught in Mexico's central highlands and Washington's central valleys, and for the past decade he has helped run a food bank serving Mexican immigrants in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. In telling their stories, he weaves together the centuries-old history of the immigrants' origins in Mexico. Garrison relates horrific tales of border crossings gone badly, but what he really wants to convey is the often hidden feelings of his friends who live a five-day drive away from their homeland. With trips home all but impossible due to border tightening after 9/11, this is really the only community these workers can count on. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816525250/qid=1151611943/sr=1-246/ref=...
Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American
By Shehong Chen (2006)
In this foundational study, Shehong Chen investigates how Chinese immigrants to the United States transformed themselves into Chinese Americans during the crucial period between 1911 and 1927. Chen documents how Chinese immigrants survived exclusion and discrimination, envisioned and maintained Chineseness, and adapted to American society. In addition to identifying the ideological elements of the Chinese American identity, Chen documents the building of permanent Chinese American communities, or Chinatowns. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252073894/qid=1151611550/sr=1-212/ref=...
Corridos in Migrant Memory
By Martha I. Chew Sanchez (2006)
The everyday experiences and cultural expressions of Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants have not found their way into textbooks in Mexico or in the United States. Sanchez’s Corridos in Migrant Memory examines the role of corridos in shaping the cultural memories and identities of transnational Mexican groups. “Corridos” are ballads particular to Mexican traditions that are used to analyze or recall a particular political, cultural, and natural event important to the communities where they are performed. Many of the most popular corridos express the negative aspects of the immigrant experience: exploitation, surveillance, and dehumanization stemming from racism and classism of the host country. The corrido helps Mexican immigrants in the United States to humanize, dignify, and make sense of their transnational experiences as racial minorities. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826334784/qid=1151610826/sr=1-199/ref=...
Democracy's Promise : Immigrants and American Civic Institutions
By Janelle Wong (2006)
The massive demographic changes in the United States during the past few decades have made understanding the place of immigrants in the public sphere more critical than ever. Democracy’s Promise examines both the challenges and opportunities posed to American civic institutions by the presence of increasing numbers of immigrants. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472069136/qid=1151612423/sr=1-8/ref=sr...
Enrique’s Journey
By Sonia Nazario (2006)
Nazario's account of a 17-year-old boy's harrowing attempt to find his mother in America won two Pulitzer Prizes when it first came out in the Los Angeles Times. The story conveys the experience of immigration from Central America. It tells the story of Enrique whose mother leaves him in Honduras when he was five years old because she could barely afford to feed him and his sister. Twelve years later, his mother still living in the United States,Enrique became one of the thousands of children and teens who try to enter the United States each year. To view, click:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400062055/104-9048155-7851135?v=glance...
From Immigrant to Naturalized Citizen: Political Incorporation in the United States
By Catherine Bueker (2006)
Bueker finds that naturalizing and voting are distinct processes. Levels of education, income, and length of eligibility predict both processes, but an immigrant’s country of origin frequently overrides these other characteristics and works differently in each. Immigrants from countries with the highest likelihood of naturalizing tend to have the lowest odds of voter turnout, while those immigrants from countries with the lowest odds of citizenship acquisition are the most likely to vote, once naturalized. Further, country of origin matters as much for how it interacts with other key characteristics, such as education and income, as for the independent influence it exerts on these two political processes. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593321376/qid=1151611155/sr=1-208/ref=...
Legal Borderlands : Law and the Construction of American Borders
By Mary L. Dudziak, Leti Volpp (2006)
This collection focuses broadly on the role of law in the construction of U.S. borders and takes up an important question raised by the global turn in American studies scholarship: once territory becomes less critical to scholarship in the discipline, what constitutes the frame of American studies? Borders are created through formal legal controls on entry and exit, through the construction of rights of citizenship and noncitizenship, and through the regulation of American power in other parts of the world. Yet the law also extends the United States beyond its literal borders, through, for example, efforts to export democracy to the Middle East. This is the first collection to map the intersection of law and American studies, and it captures the excitement of interdisciplinary work at this intersection. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801884144/qid=1151611550/sr=1-213/ref=...
Mexican Immigrants in the Labor Market: The Strength of Strong Ties
By Maria Luisa Amado (2006)
Amado examines the job seeking strategies of recent Mexican immigrants in Atlanta. She explores the resources available to job seekers within and outside their immigrant networks and the role of kinship during migration and settlement. Strong ties are primary sources of support and job information for new arrivals. Ties of kinship are effective work links among male workers involved in dense occupational networks of fellow immigrants. This is especially true among informal workers in industries that rely on abundant migrant labor. Women are less likely to benefit from these connections due to labor market and network segregation along gender lines. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593321333/qid=1151611155/sr=1-210/ref=...
New Negroes from Africa: Free African Immigrants in the Nineteenth-Century Caribbean (Blacks in the Diaspora)
By Rosanne Marion Adderley (2006)
Adderley describes the formation of new African immigrant communities in territories which had long depended on enslaved African labor. Working from diverse records, she tries to tease out information about the families of liberated Africans, the labor they performed, their religions, and the culture they brought with them. She addresses issues of gender, ethnicity, and identity, and concludes with a discussion of repatriation. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253218276/sr=1-1/qid=1150485234/ref=sr...
One Hundred Years of Buying Care: Gender, Race, Immigration and Market Care Work in the Twentieth Century
By Mignon Duffy (2006)
Scholars have raised serious concerns about the disproportionate presence of women of color and immigrant women in low-wage care occupations, warning of the emergence of a new racialized and globalized servant class of women care workers. The analysis focuses on occupational shifts within care as well as the distribution of care workers by gender, race/ethnicity, and immigration status. While the immigrant makeup of the care workforce has shifted from primarily European to Mexican and Central American women, the subordination of women of color and immigrant women in the lowest paying care jobs has shown remarkable continuity. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/049690972X/qid=1151612423/sr=1-9/ref=sr...
Orange County Housecleaners
By Frank Cancian (2006)
Orange County Housecleaners documents the lives of seven women who make their livings cleaning houses in Orange County, Calif. Of the seven, five are Latina immigrants and two are Orange County natives. Each chapter combines a woman's life story told in her own words with Frank Cancian's recent photos of her family, work, and other activities. His introduction to the book gives background on domestic workers in Southern California and on the family situations of immigrant women who leave their children in their native countries while providing for them by working in the United States. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826336876/qid=1151611155/sr=1-201/ref=...
The New Rural Poverty: Agriculture and Immigration in California
By Philip L. Martin, Michael E. Fix, and J. Edward Taylor (February 2006)
The New Rural Poverty examines the effect of rural immigration on inland agricultural areas in California, farm areas in coastal California, and meat and poultry processing centers in Delaware and Iowa. The authors examine the interdependencies between immigrants and agriculture in the United States, explore the policy challenges and options, and assess how current proposals for immigration reform will affect rural America. To view, click: http://www.uipress.org/Template.cfm?Section=Bookstore&Template=/Ecommerc...
Transforming Politics, Transforming America: The Political and Civic Incorporation of Immigrants in the United States
By Taeku Lee, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Ricardo Ramirez
In Transforming Politics, Transforming America, the authors bring together the newest work of prominent scholars in the field of immigrant political incorporation to provide the first comprehensive look at the political behavior of immigrants. With an emphasis on research that brings innovative theory, quantitative methods, and systematic data to bear, this volume presents a provocative evidence-based examination of the consequences that these demographic changes might have for the contemporary politics of the United States as well as for the concerns, categories, and conceptual frameworks we use to study race relations and ethnic politics. To view, click: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813925452/qid=1151612423/sr=1-2/ref=sr...
Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White
By David R. Roediger (2006)
In Working Toward Whiteness, Roediger recounts how American ethnic groups considered White today—including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans—once occupied a confused racial status in their new country. They eventually became part of White America thanks to the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants—the racist real estate agreements that ensured all-White neighborhoods—Roediger explores the murky realities of race in twentieth-century America. To view, click:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465070744/sr=8-1/qid=1150484992/ref=sr...
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2 (APRIL 14, 2006)
VOTING
A Solution to Louisiana’s Post-Katrina Electoral Problems: Responsiveness, Voting Rights and Continuity in Congressional Representation
By FairVote (February 2, 2006)
Maintaining that Hurricane Katrina resulted in a “crisis of fair and responsive Congressional representation in southern Louisiana,” this paper explores the crisis in four dimensions: disproportionate representation, overload of constituent demands, liability under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and ruptured representation. To view this study, click http://www.fairvote.org/media/documents/fairvote_katrina_report.pdf.
Louisiana's Electoral Disaster
By Rob Richie and Ryan O'Donnell, FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy (December 22, 2005)
Richie and O’Donnell, the executive and communications directors of FairVote, discuss New Orleans’ problems with democracy establishing who can vote and making it easy for them to participate. Originally published in the Washington Post, the article is available at http://www.fairvote.org/katrina/?page=9&articlemode=showspecific&showart....
Transcript of “Voting After Katrina: Ensuring Meaningful Participation”
Hosted by the Center for American Progress and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (November 1, 2005)
Moderated by William Yeomans, program director of the American Constitution Society, this round-table discussion featured Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL); Al Ater, Louisiana Secretary Of State; Debo P. Adegbile, associate director of litigation, NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and Ronald Wilson, Esq., a New Orleans attorney.
To view the transcript, click http://www.americanprogress.org/atf/cf/%7BE9245FE4-9A2B-43C7-A521-5D6FF2....
The Political Effects of Hurricane Katrina
By FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy (February 10, 2006)
According to this document, Hurricane Katrina so upset the size and demographics of Louisiana that voters may become disenfranchised and the voting strength of communities may be unjustly diluted or enriched. Presented is a synopsis of the political after-effects of Hurricane Katrina and proposed remedies. To view the document, click http://www.fairvote.org/media/documents/katrina_onepage.pdf.
IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS
Enrique's Journey
By Sonia Nazario (February 2006)
Nazario’s book tells the story of a 17-year-old boy and his attempt to locate his mother in America. Enrique’s Journey tells one story of the estimated 48,000 children and teens who attempt to enter the U.S. without BCIS authorization each year in search of mothers who left them behind to find economic opportunities to lift them out of poverty.
Hurricane Katrina-Related Immigration Issues and Legislation
By Ruth Ellen Wasem, Immigration Policy Specialist, U.S. Domestic Social Policy Division (September 19, 2005)
Wasem examines the “devastation and displacement” caused by Hurricane Katrina and the specific consequences for foreign nationals who lived in the Gulf Coast region, including legal permanent residents, non-immigrants, and undocumented immigrants. She also examines whether Congress should relax laws pertaining to foreign nationals who are victims of Hurricane Katrina. To view Wasem’s report, located on the State Department’s website, click http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/53687.pdf.
In The Eye of the Storm: How the Government and Private Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed Latinos
By Brenda Muñiz, National Council of La Raza (Feb 28, 2006)
This report finds that the federal government and the American Red Cross are unprepared to address the needs of Latinos and other diverse communities in the event of a disaster. Muñiz also makes recommendations to improve both the public and private response in future disasters. To view this study, click http://www.nclr.org/files/36812_file_Katrina_Report_FINAL.pdf.
Priorities for Immigrant Workers in the Gulf Coast
By the National Immigration Law Center (March 2006)
This brief by NILC focuses on preventing the exploitation of undocumented workers in the affected areas. Recommendations include preventing wage theft and requiring humanitarian assistance be provided to all immigrant workers who are survivors of Katrina. This brief is available http://www.nilc.org/disaster_assistance/priorities_imm_workers_gc_2006-3....
Undocumented Immigrants: Myths and Reality
By Randy Capps, Urban Institute, and Michael Fix, Migration Policy Institute (October 25, 2005)
Capps and Fix take on six popular myths about undocumented immigrants in the United States and provide evidence to dispel them. To view their fact sheet, click http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900898_undocumented_immigrants.pdf.
WORKERS RIGHTS
Back to Work in New Orleans
By Harry J. Holzer, the Brookings Institution (October 2005)
Holzer focuses on how to employ young black men, already underrepresented in the workforce, in the rebuilding effort given their low rates of employment, and high rates of crime and incarceration. To view his report, click http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/200510_backtowork.pdf.
Derechos Salariales de Los Jornaleros
By the National Employment Law Project (November, 2005)
This Spanish language fact sheet is designed to provide Post-Katrina information on the rights of workers, both documented and undocumented.
Esta hoja informativa contiene información sobre los derechos de los trabajadores, documentados y indocumentados, incluyendo el derecho de recibir recompensación por horas trabajados sin tomar en cuenta el estatus de immigración del trabajador. Para leer esta hoja, visite: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/DayLaborWaitingTimeDeductions%5Fsp%5Fjved....
Employment Issues and Challenges in Post-Katrina New Orleans
By Harry J. Holzer and Robert I. Lerman, Urban Institute (February 2006)
Holzer and Lerman review some of the short- and longer-term challenges and uncertainties involved in tackling labor market issues in rebuilding New Orleans as well as present several policy proposals for addressing those issues. This paper evaluates the needs of those returning to New Orleans, as well as those who choose to remain or go elsewhere. Holzer and Lerman argue that for “fairly modest public expenditures, the labor market disadvantages of many current and former residents can be addressed and their long-term employment outcomes improved.” To access this paper, click http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900921_employment_issues.pdf.
Estrategias Para Reclamar sus Derechos Salariales en Alabama, Louisiana y Mississippi
By the National Employment Law Project (November 2005)
This Spanish language fact sheet is designed to provide workers with information and strategies on how to exercise their right to be paid for post-Katrina work undertaken in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi..
Hay varias estrategias para reclamar sus derechos salariales y modos de recuperar los salarios sin pagar. Esta hoja informativa enfoca a los derechos de trabajadores trabajando en Alabama, Louisiana y Mississippi despues del huracán Katrina. Para leer esta hoja, visite: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/DayLaborWaitingTimeDeductions%5Fsp%5Fjved....
Good Work and Fair Contracts: Making Gulf Coast Reconstruction Work for Local Residents and Businesses
By the Gulf Coast Commission on Reconstruction Equity (Interfaith Worker Justice and Good Jobs First) (February 2006)
This report contains a ‘report card addressing the President’s, Congress’ and various federal departments’ response to the post-Katrina rebuilding effort. It examines the assignment of rebuilding contracts to private contractors, wage theft, and lack of wage-enforcement efforts by the Department of Labor. To access this report, click http://www.iwj.org/actnow/gccre/gccre_full_report.pdf.
Hurricane Katrina: Social-Demographic Characteristics of Impacted Areas
By Thomas Gabe, Gene Falk, and Maggie McCarty, Domestic Social Policy Division; Virginia W. Mason, Congressional Cartography Program, Library of Congress (November 4, 2005)
Gabe et al. discuss Hurricane Katrina’s varying characteristics of impacted areas, especially social and economic composition. A focus is on the plight of working-age adults, low labor force participation rates, and higher unemployment rates than the national average. To access this resource, click http://www.gnocdc.org/reports/crsrept.pdf.
New Start New Orleans: Good Jobs for a Better Gulf
By Hilary Pennington, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Pennington’s brief addresses the importance of rebuilding the Gulf Coast without the chronic poverty of the people in affected areas. Stressing an approach of cooperation between the government and the private sector is, Pennington suggests, a way to bring back the Gulf Coast work force and their families while escaping poverty. To read the full brief, click http://www.americanprogress.org/atf/cf/%7BE9245FE4-9A2B-43C7-A521-5D6FF2....
EDUCATION
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans
By Paul Hill and Jane Hannaway, The Urban Institute (January 2006)
Hill and Hannaway discuss methods for rebuilding and improving the public education system in New Orleans, including how to attract quality school providers and screen out poor ones and how to attract a large, talented pool of applicants for jobs as teachers and principals. Their focus is how New Orleans can cope with uncertainty while providing quality education as well as providing a vision for long-term planning. Their report is available http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/900913_public_education.pdf.
An Unnatural Disaster: A Critical Resource Guide for Addressing the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Classroom
By the New York Collective of Radical Educators (December 2, 2005)
With plenty of educational and discussion opportunities for students, this electronic document serves as an interactive guidebook through topics such as the government response to Katrina, inequality that was the fabric of New Orleans life, racism’s contribution to the response, as well the rebuilding process. To access the document, click http://www.nycore.org/PDF/AnUnnaturalDisaster2PDF.pdf.
“Katrina's Winds Integrate Two Tiny Mississippi Schools”
By KATC TV-3
KATC TV-3 reports on two Roman Catholic elementary schools – racially segregated for more than 100 years – that came together after Hurricane Katrina destroyed one school. Find the story http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4048128.
“Hurricane-hit States Get More IDEA, NCLB Waivers”
Sarah Sparks, Stephen Sawchuk. Education Daily. Sept 23, 2005 v38 i170 p3(1).
In this article, Sparks and Sawchuk report on the Senate subcommittee hearing for helping K-12 schools that have enrolled displaced students. Waivers were requested on reporting requirements for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi for the No Child Left Behind Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“Additional Support for Hurricane-Displaced Students”
Nicole Ashby, Editor, U.S. Department of Education, The Achiever. Volume 4, Number 12 (November/December 2005)
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and a group of mental health experts and school officials met in October and November 2005 for a series of roundtable discussions on how to help students and educators cope with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. To view this newsletter, click http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/achiever/2005/1105.html.
“Support for Families and Schools Affected by Katrina”
Nicole Ashby, Editor, U.S. Department of Education, The Achiever. Volume 4, Number 11 (October, 2005)
President Bush's proposed budget of $2.6 billion that will provide federal education funding to help families and school systems from the Gulf Coast region that have suffered through Hurricane Katrina as well as communities accepting displaced students.
To view this newsletter, click http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/achiever/2005/1005.html.
HOUSING
Rebuilding Affordable Housing in New Orleans: The Challenge of Creating Inclusive Communities
Susan J. Popkin, Margery Austin Turner, and Martha R. Burt (January 2006)
This paper examines the challenge of rebuilding affordable housing while avoiding old patterns of concentrating assisted housing and poor families in a few isolated communities. To view this study, click http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900914_affordable_housing.pdf.
Rebuilding Homes and Lives: Progressive Options for Housing Policy Post Katrina
By Joel Horwitch, Jason Lakin, Lydia Bean, Andrew Jakaobovics, Jal Mehta, and Derek R.B. Douglas (October 12, 2005)
This brief offers options for policy-makers to use for meeting housing challenges post Katrina. The steps offered include providing shelter to the homeless and rebuilding the Gulf Coast in a way that will expand opportunity and build sustainable communities. Particular attention is paid to overcoming the legacy of concentrated poverty by offering a range of strategies to create mixed income communities. To view this study, click http://www.americanprogress.org/atf/cf/%7BE9245FE4-9A2B-43C7-A521-5D6FF2....
Recovering States? The Gulf Coast Six Months After the Storm
By Oxfam America (February 2006)
This report reveals that poor households are being left behind in the disaster recovery effort, examining the economic status of the displaced residents, the ability of displaced residents to return to their former neighborhoods, and the need to ensure that housing recovery and rebuilding takes those living in poverty into consideration. To access this report, click http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/briefing_pa....
The Impact of Katrina: Race and Class in Storm-Damaged Neighborhoods
By John R. Logan, Professor of Sociology, Brown University; Director, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (January 2006)
Logan presents an analysis of FEMA storm damage data, revealing that the region’s Black community, people who rented their homes, and the poor and unemployed disproportionately endured the storm’s impact. His study also includes a discussion of post-Katrina policy choices that leave New Orleans susceptible to losing more than 80% of its pre-Katrina Black population. To view Logan’s study, click http://www.s4.brown.edu/Katrina/report.pdf.
Housing Families Displaced by Katrina: A Review of the Federal Response to Date
By Bruce Katz, Amy Liu, Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta, the Brookings Institution (November 2005)
This analysis discusses why, despite a substantial spending allocation, the government's policy response has not been cost-effective and why the government under-invests in Section 8 housing vouchers. To view this paper, click http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20051114_CostofHousing.pdf.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Can We Save New Orleans?
By Oliver Houck, Professor of Law, Tulane University (Spring 2006)
Published in the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, Houck raises the question of whether we can save New Orleans in a post-Katrina environment. To view his study, click http://kerrn.org/pdf/Houck_CanWeSaveNewOrleans.pdf.
Contaminants in New Orleans Sediment: An Analysis of EPA Data
By Gina M. Solomon, M.D., M.P.H., Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Natural Resources Defense Council (February 2006)
When the waters of Katrina receded, they left behind a caked layer of muck on streets, yards, porches, and playgrounds across the region. Solomon and Rotkin-Ellman’s analysis of EPA data shows that most districts in New Orleans contain concentrations of arsenic, lead, diesel fuel, or other industrial carcinogens above levels that would normally trigger investigation and possible soil cleanup in the state of Louisiana. To see what implications this data has on rebuilding New Orleans, http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/katrinadata/sedimentepa.pdf.
Draft Environmental Assessment: Port of Lake Charles Industrial Park Property Emergency Temporary Housing Site, Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
By the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Results of the environmental review process, including an impact analysis on water quality, vegetation and wildlife, as well as the details of public involvement in developing the plan. To view this report, click http://www.fema.gov/pdf/ehp/lakecharles_ea_draft.pdf.
An Unnatural Disaster: The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
By the Center for Progressive Reform (September 2005)
This report addresses the historical roots of the Katrina disaster, emergency response planning, discrimination and social justice ramifications, and the competing conservative and progressive responses to the disaster. Also included is an examination of the environmental problems Katrina left in her wake, including flooded and contaminated drinking water supplies, multiple oil spills, leaking underground fuel and chemical tanks, and flooded sewage treatment plants, in addition to other problems. To view, click http://www.progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf.
Cleanup after Hurricane Katrina: Environmental Considerations
Robert Esworthy, Linda Jo Schierow, Claudia Copeland, and Linda Luther, Resources, Science, & Industry Division, Congressional Research Service (October 13, 2005)
Esworthy et al. provide an overview of the immediate and intermediate cleanup tasks and the federal role supporting these tasks. To view, click http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/05oct/RL33115.pdf.
HEALTHCARE
MSU Researchers Say Black Mold Toxins Could Affect Sense of Smell
By Zahidul Islam, Jack R. Harkema, and James J. Pestka (February 2006)
Researchers have found that certain toxins produced by black mold, a fungus found everywhere in thousands of buildings in New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf coast, are capable of killing nerve cells, essential for the sense of smell, that are located in the nasal passages of mice. What are the implications for humans breathing this toxic air? Their study and findings are described in brief, http://www.newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/2673/content.htm and in full, http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8854/8854.pdf.
Initial Health Policy Responses to Hurricane Katrina and Possible Next Steps
Stephen Zuckerman, Teresa A. Coughlin, Urban Institute (February 2006)
Zuckerman and Coughlin examine the effects of Hurricane Katrina's destruction of much of New Orleans' health care system, especially in the low-income uninsured population. This paper discusses the many difficult health care challenges in Katrina’s aftermath. To view, click http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900929_health_policy.pdf.
Disaster Health Risks Weighed
By Susan Kim, Disaster News Network (March 4, 2006)
Disaster responders weigh whether post-disaster illnesses need to be better tracked, especially in the wake of Katrina survivors and returnees contracting illnesses. Meanwhile, OSHA officials say technical assistance, not health preparedness, is the first line of defense in an emergency. To view Kim’s article, click http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=3075.
Environmental Health and Hurricane Katrina
Henry Falk, Grant Baldwin. Environmental Health Perspectives. Jan 2006 v114 i1 pA12(2).
Falk and Baldwin give a brief overview of the environmental health problems still facing those living in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, including housing, debris removal, toxic chemicals, sewage treatment, safe drinking water, and occupational health.
BOOKS
Hurricane Katrina: Response and Responsibilities
By John Brown Childs, Editor. (January 2006)
This book compiles responses to the hurricane from more than 30 contributors, including community activists, sociologists, writers, and musicians. Some have been displaced by the hurricane and write about what they have lost. Others write from a distance, seeing patterns in the response to the hurricane that reflect a cultural bias of race and class. Together they offer not only critical assessments of what went wrong, but also hopeful conjecture about possibilities for the future of New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and the United States.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971254621/qid=1142877728/sr=1-1/ref=sr...
Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster
By Michael Eric Dyson (February 2006)
While Dyson chronicles the hurricane and its aftermath, he also argues that the nation's failure to offer timely aid to Katrina's victims indicates deeper problems in race and class relations. Dyson’s ultimate assertion is that Katrina exposed a dominant culture pervaded not only by "active malice" toward poor blacks but also by a long history of "passive indifference" to their problems.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465017614/qid=1142875001/sr=1-18/ref=s...
2005 Complete Guide to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster – Federal Reports, Government Response, Science Reports, Devastation to Louisiana, New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama (DVD-ROM)
By U.S. Government (January 15, 2006)
This electronic book is a collection of American government documents on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Included is material from 26 federal agencies and departments, with in-depth national reports, technical and scientific data, and images. The more than 38,000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software comes from privately compiled collections of official, public domain U.S. government files and documents.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422004686/qid=1142875001/sr=1-12/ref=s...
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 (JANUARY 18, 2006)
MLK & NONVIOLENCE
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968
By Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, January 2006)
The eagerly-awaited third volume of Taylor Branch’s history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement has just been published. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author began his trilogy with Parting the Waters in 1989, followed by Pillar of Fire. Branch’s books are considered among the classics of civil rights literature, and organizers consistently rank them as indispensable resources.
KATRINA
Black Psychologists Respond to Hurricane Katrina
By Robert Atwell, Psy.D., National President, Association of Black Psychologists (September 6, 2005)
“What happens to a people who have been dispossessed, despised, and disinherited when tragedy occurs?” This document answers that question with a discussion of the economic and social stratification of, and discrimination against, Black Hurricane Katrina survivors. http://www.abpsi.org/hurricane.htm
Katrina Leaves Widespread Depression in Her Wake
By Amanda Gardner
This article examines one of the psychological after-effects of Hurricane Katrina: depression. One survey found that 53 percent of Louisiana residents reported feeling depressed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56975
New Orleans: Drowned City Cuts Its Poor Adrift
By Peter Beaumont (December 11, 2005)
This article exposes how mainly Black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions, and reconstruction plans that favor those with money. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1664630,00.html
Roundtable: Black Colleges and Katrina
By Ed Gordon (September 8, 2005)
What effect has Hurricane Katrina had on Louisiana’s historically Black colleges and universities? Ed Gordon's guests include Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund; Elnora D. Daniel, president of Chicago State University; and Norman Francis, president of Xavier University in New Orleans. To hear the audio version of this discussion, visit: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4837203
EDUCATION
Demanding Change
By Communities for Quality Education
This set of interactive maps details states’ growing movement to fix the No Child Left Behind law's expensive rules and regulations. Communities for Quality Education has identified efforts in all 50 states to fix the federal law since 2003. http://www.qualityednow.org/reports/revolt/
NCLB Revolt Spreading
By Ellen R. Delisio, Education World
Delisio examines the growing nationwide revolt against the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Delisio also includes information about how some states are challenging NCLB. http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues418.shtml
Status and Trends in the Education of Blacks
By the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education
This report makes statistical information about the educational status of Blacks easily accessible to a variety of audiences and uses statistics published by NCES in a variety of reports. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003034.pdf
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
America's Poor and Blacks Suffer Greater Health Risks on Account of Pollution
By Bharat Rathode, Earth Times (December 15, 2005)
Rathode examines findings that black and poor Americans are 79 percent more prone to residing in neighborhoods polluted by industrial emissions, which pose the greatest risks to their health. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/4673.html
Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool
The Environmental Protection Agency has provided a mapping tool that citizens can use to determine the level and types of contamination to any geographic area. http://www.epa.gov/enviro/ej/
Thirsty for Justice: A People’s Blueprint for California Water
By the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water is a network of more than fifty grassroots and intermediary organizations and empowers community members to become strong voices for water justice in their communities. This document is an overview of the environmental justice issues in California water.
http://www.ejcw.org/ or http://www.ejcw.org/Thirsty%20for%20Justice.pdf .
LIVING WAGE
Failing Jobs, Falling Wages: The 2005 North Carolina Living Income Standard
By John Quinterno and Elizabeth Jordan, North Carolina Justice Center (2005)
This document examines the 2005 North Carolina living income standard, describes who falls below the living income standard, and shifting tax burdens from the poor to the wealthy as an agenda for change. http://www.ncjustice.org/media/library/551_livingincome2005.pdf
The Living Wage Movement: Gaining Momentum
By the Employment Policy Foundation
This report details: growth of the living wage movement; characteristics of low-wage earners; effects of low wages on nonprofit organizations and social services; and penalties imposed on employers. It also documents the 106 living wage ordinances enforced by 98 counties and cities, 3 universities, and 4 other local jurisdictions in 31 states. http://www.livingwageresearch.org/factsheets/overview.asp
PRISON COMPLEX
Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States
By the Sentencing Project (November 2005)
The Sentencing Project is a non-profit organization that promotes “reduced reliance on incarceration and increased use of more effective and humane alternatives to deal with crime.” This document presents an overview of felony disenfranchisement laws in the U.S. It also includes states’ policy changes regarding felons’ ability to vote and a chart detailing the categories of felons who face disenfranchisement in each state. http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1046.pdf
NJ Racial Profiling Archive
By the Drug Reform Coordination Network
The archive contains 91,000 pages of documents from the New Jersey Racial Profiling Archive. These documents were released to the public by the Office of the Attorney General of the New Jersey Department of Public Safety and have since been the subject of intensive scrutiny and media coverage. http://stopthedrugwar.org/njprofiling/archive.shtml
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Alternatives to the Secure Detention and Confinement of Juvenile Offenders
By James Austin, Kelly Dedel Johnson, and Ronald Weitzer, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection (September 2005)
This document promotes the court’s reliance on detention and confinement through administrative reforms and special program initiatives informed by an objective assessment of a youth’s risk level. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/208804.pdf
MISCELLANEOUS
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 .
Hate Crime Statistics: 2004
By the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice (November 2005)
This document aims to raise national awareness about bias-motivated crimes. It accounts the 7,649 criminal incidents that law enforcement agencies reported and includes information on 9,035 offenses, 9,528 victims, and 7,145 known offenders. The report includes information about hate crime incidents, the types of offenses committed, and some aspects of the victims and the offenders. Tables contain hate crime data aggregated by state or agency type. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2004/tables/HateCrime2004.pdf
Results of the 2005 National Latino Survey
By: The Latino Coalition (January 2006)
This survey demonstrates that two very different segments exist within the Latino community – recent immigrants and those who have been here for many years – and their views on political issues are frequently at odds. The debate over immigration reform is a perfect example of the diverse opinions within the Latino community. Access top-line results and PowerPoint presentation on the survey at: http://www.thelatinocoalition.com/
The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on North Carolina
By: John D. Kasarda and James H. Johnson, Jr. (January 2006)
This study documents the nature and magnitude of North Carolina’s Latino population change and estimates the economic impact of her Latino residents on individual counties, metropolitan areas, and the state as a whole, along with their associated costs and benefits. The report finds that Latinos now live in every one of North Carolina’s one hundred counties. It is expected that by 2009, the Latino population will contribute as much as $18 billion to the state’s economy, doubling the current contribution, while the net cost to the state in education, health care, and corrections is a mere $102 per Latino resident.
http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/assets/documents/2006_KenanInstitute_Hi... .
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 3, ISSUE 4 (OCTOBER 17, 2005)
Barriers to Employment facing young Black and White Men with Criminal Records
By Devah Pager and Bruce Western, Department of Sociology, Princeton University (2005)
Successful prisoner re-entry has long been recognized as one wrought with barriers and inequities. Does race have a bearing on the opportunities afforded to the formerly incarcerated; will a white person with a criminal conviction be extended a job offer before a black person with a criminal conviction? Visit: http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/auditnyc_offenders_draft.pdf or http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/pager_ajs.pdf.
Closing the Gap: Solutions to Race-based Health Disparities
By Applied Research Center and Northwest Federation of Community Organizers (Summer 2005)
This report documents the persistent problems experienced by communities of color attempting to access health care services across the nation. With a review of the latest research on health disparities, in-depth field research, and comprehensive case studies, Closing the Gap reinvigorates the debate over what may be the nation's greatest public health challenge--the persistent racial divide in access to comprehensive, quality health services. To access this report visit: http://www.arc.org/Pages/pubs/closinggap.html.
Ethnic Disparities in Education: North County San Diego - A series of fact sheets and profiles
By the National Latino Research Center at Cal State San Marcos (Spring/Summer, 2005)
Nationwide, minority students lag behind their White counterparts at all levels of education. Latino students, in particular, experience disparities in educational opportunities (e.g. gifted education and college preparatory curriculums) and outcomes. These fact sheets examine ethnic disparities in North County Sand Diego, CA. To access these fact sheets visit: http://www.csusm.edu/nlrc/publications/Fact%20Sheets/Fact_Sheet_Educ_Dis....
Latinos and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: Beyond Black and White
By Juan Cartagena, National Black Law Journal, Volume 18, Number 2 (Summer, 2005)
Because it is generally assumed that Latinos are primarily interested in the language protections of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), this article examines the instrumental role of New York's Puerto Rican community in shaping the VRA's policies toward Latinos through both Section 5 and Section 203 protections; the connection between the VRA and Mexicans in Texas; and the broader discourse over majority minority districts.
Letter in Support of the Movement in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast - Notes on Strategy and Tactics
By Eric Mann (September, 2005)
The author of this article, has been involved in the Civil Rights Movement since 1964 and is now the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and a member of the Bus Riders Union Planning Committee. This article promotes the idea of publishing more strategy papers that will push the left closer to the goal of achieving unity by enjoying and employing winning strategies and tactics. To access this article, visit: http://www.frontlinespress.com/Letter_in_Support_web.pdf.
National Healthcare Disparities Report
By the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (December, 2004) This report is a comprehensive national overview of healthcare disparities among racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in the United States. This report also tracks the nation's progress toward eliminating disparities in health care. To access the full report, visit: http://www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/disparitiesreport/browse/browse.aspx.
New Jersey Voter Protection Laws in a Nutshell
By Advancement Project (2005)
This publication is part of a series intended to distill complex election law for lawyers, advocates, voter registration campaigns and "Get Out the Vote" campaigns. It combines state election law with state regulations, rules, attorney general opinions and other election materials to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the law and practices that impact elections. While this publication does not cover every provision of state election law, it highlights those provisions which in our experience have most impacted the voting rights of minority voters. To access this report, visit: http://www.advancementproject.org/publications.html#pd.
Racial Profiling: Don't Mind If I Take a Look Do Ya? An Examination of Consent Searches and Contraband Hit Rates at Texas Traffic Stops
By Dwight Steward, Ph.D, Steward Research Group and Molly Totman, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) on behalf of ACLU, NAACP, LULAC & TCJC of Texas (February, 2005)
This study examines the statistical reports of 1,060 Texas law enforcement agencies. This document represents the largest set of racial profiling data ever collected and analyzed. Key findings include: Texas law enforcement agencies continue to search Blacks and Latinos at higher rates than Anglos; consent searches - performed without any legal basis to search - were used most often with Black and Latinos following traffic stops; patterns of over-searching Blacks and Latinos are consistent; and racial disparities in search rates appear to be growing. To access this report visit: http://www.criminaljusticecoalition.org/racial_profiling.html.
The Shame of a Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
By Jonathan Kozol (Summer, 2005)
Has integration in our public schools taken one step forward and two steps back? It appears to be so; today the likelihood that a Black child will attend a segregated school is higher than it was in 1968. Kozol's book exposes the conditions he found while visiting a number of schools in eleven states over a five year period.
The State of the Dream: Black-White Gaps Still Wide - Some Even Widening- Since Dr. King's Death
By Dedrick Muhammad, Attieno Davis, Meizhu Lui and Betsy Leondar-Wright for United Fair Economy (UFE) (January, 2004)
This report finds that the racial gap in the United States has widened since the 1960's. Findings include: Black unemployment is higher today than in 1972 and it is double the rate of White job-seekers; today the typical Black family has 58% as much income as a White family, down from 60% in 1968; Black infants are twice as likely as White infants to die before reaching the age of one, up from 1970 estimates. To access this report, visit: http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2004/StateoftheDream2004.pdf.
Virginia Voter Protection Laws in a Nutshell
By Advancement Project (2005)
This publication is part of a series intended to distill complex election law for lawyers, advocates, voter registration campaigns and "Get Out the Vote" campaigns. It combines state election law with state regulations, rules, attorney general opinions and other election materials to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the law and practices that impact elections. While this publication does not cover every provision of state election law, it highlights those provisions which in our experience have most impacted the voting rights of minority voters. To access this report, visit: http://www.advancementproject.org/publications.html#pd.
We Are All Suspects Now - Untold Stories for Immigrant Communities After 9/11
By Tram Nguyen (2005)
This book puts a human face on the "war on terror" by bringing together the stories of individuals affected by the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the aftermath of September 11th. It uncovers the story of Mohammad Butt, for example, the first to die in detention after 9/11 and it sheds light on Chris Simcox, ringleader of the vigilante "Minutemen" who are now patrolling the U.S.-Mexico boarder. Visit: www.wearesuspects.com.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 (JULY 15, 2005)
Focus on Community and Economic Development
AUDIO/VIDEO
A Day's Work, A Day's Pay by Jonathan Skurnik and Kathy Leichter A Day's Work, A Day's Pay follows three welfare recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation. When forced to work at city jobs for well below the prevailing wage and deprived of the chance to go to school, these individuals decide to fight back, demanding programs that will actually help them move off welfare and into jobs. http://www.newday.com/films/A_Days_Work.html
Barely Getting By: A Documentary on the Working Poor
In 2004, WAMU public radio began producing a series of short features that explored the many issues affecting low-wage workers. To date, more than a dozen such features have been produced, providing the base for a full-length radio documentary that takes an in-depth look into the subject. This one-hour documentary explores the needs and experiences of low-wage workers in the D.C. Metro Area and is co-hosted by WAMU's Sam Litzinger and David Shipler, author of "The Working Poor". It was produced by Sidsel Overgaard. http://wamu.org/programs/special/05/barely_getting_by__a_documentary_on_...
Divided We Sprawl
This documentary uses stories of people on the frontlines of change to examine how land use policies promoting suburbanization have devoured open space and farms and is destroying cities. Using six key portraits, the film takes viewers on a journey that reveals how we have become a more divided country even as we become a more suburban nation. Torrice Productions, torriceproductions@yahoo.com.
FENCELINE: A Company Town Divided
Fenceline follows the story of Margi Richard, who believes that her African American community is suffering adverse health effects, due to the chemical emissions of a neighboring plant owned by the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. The town of Norco, LA is divided between those who consider Shell a fair neighbor that carefully monitors it's chemical emissions and the all-black Diamond Community. As a result of Shell's industrial expansion, the size of the Diamond Community has been reduced to four streets that extend from the plant's fence line. According to the producers, Fenceline hopes to offer the viewer an appreciation of the delicate balance between industry and environmental rights, without promoting a particular viewpoint. www.logtv.com/films/fenceline/index.htm.
Metropolitan Avenue by Christine Noschese
Metropolitan Avenue is an inspiring film about community, about the changing role of women, and about how powerful ordinary people can be when they join together to fight for something in which they believe. The film focuses on a lively Brooklyn neighborhood which, like many urban areas, faces problems caused by racial tensions and cutbacks in municipal services. But in this case, a group of "traditional" homemakers from varied ethnic backgrounds rises to the challenge and forms coalitions to fight for the community's survival. http://www.newday.com/films/Metropolitan_Avenue.html
BOOKS/REPORTS
2005 Fair Housing Trends Report (National Fair Housing Alliance: April 5, 2005
This report is based on 2004 housing discrimination complaint data compiled from National Fair Housing Alliance member agencies nationwide, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Justice and state and local government agencies. www.nationalfairhousing.org.
Examining the Evidence: The Impact of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance on Workers and Business, (Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy; Department of Economics, University of Riverside; & North American Integration and Development Center, University of California Los Angeles: Summer 2005)
This study provides insights on the effects of living wage policies, which been adopted by more than 120 local governments around the country. The study's findings are based on three original random-sample surveys of workers and firms, including a survey conducted after the pay increase had taken place, of 320 workers affected by the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance; a survey of 82 firms affected by the Ordinance; and a control group on non-living wage firms in similar industries. www.losangeleslivingwagestudy.org/.
Judy Hertz, Organizing for Change: Stories of Success
This report recounts the stories of four successful community organizing campaigns in the Chicago area in the past ten years. It ncludes: Keeping Jobs in the Neighborhood; Saving the Heart of Hammond; Setting the Housing Agenda; Stopping Predatory Lending; and 20 Additional Victories. www.nfg.org/publications/index.htm.
Julian Gross, Greg LeRoy & Madeline-Janis Aparicio, Community Benefits Agreements: Making Development Projects Accountable (2005)
This publication is intended to help community groups learn how community benefits agreements (CBAs) work; and to explain many of the different kinds of benefits for which community groups can negotiate...a community group's ability to win a CBA is directly related to how much power it has organized. www.laane.org.
Joint Center for Housing Studies, State of the Nation's Housing 2005, (Harvard University: June 1, 2005)
In 2004, housing markets posted record growth. Homeownership reached an all time high of 69 percent, with households of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities joining the home buying boom. Single-family starts hit a record 1.6 million units, while new and existing home sales grew to nearly 8 million. Mortgage product innovations helped markets stay hot. But creative financing is adding to risk, cautions the 2005 State of the Nation's Housing report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Although interest-only and adjustable loans can initially save a typical homebuyer hundreds of dollars in monthly payments, these loans also leave borrowers vulnerable to sharply higher payments when interest rates adjust or principal payments start to become due. http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/markets/son2005/
Preapprovals and Pricing Disparities in the Mortgage Marketplace (National Community Reinvestment Coalition: June, 2005)
This report finds disturbing evidence that pricing disparities by race, income and gender threaten the country's goal of increasing affordable homeownership opportunities. www.ncrc.org.
Tony Proscio, Schools, Community & Development: Erasing the Boundaries, (The Enterprise Foundation: January 1, 2005)
This report describes the remarkable results of efforts to connect community-based revitalization initiatives with school reform programs in the same neighborhoods. In some of the most challenged communities in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Atlanta, low-income children, schools, and neighborhoods are making real progress as a result of these coordinated approaches. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the successful elements of these initiatives, discuss challenges that they still face, and suggest some lessons learned that help funders, policy-makers, practitioners, and community residents think through the connections that exist between efforts to rebuild communities and revitalize their schools. http://www.knowledgeplex.org/showdoc.html?id=95433
David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, (Vintage Publishers, January 4: 2005)
The Working Poor examines the "forgotten America" where "millions live in the shadow of prosperity, in the twilight between poverty and well-being." These are citizens for whom the American Dream is out of reach despite their willingness to work hard. David Shipler interviewed many such working people for this book and his profiles offer an intimate look at what it is like to be trapped in a cycle of dead-end jobs without benefits or opportunities for advancement. He shows how some negotiate a broken welfare system that is designed to help yet often does not, while others proudly refuse any sort of government assistance, even to their detriment. Still others have no idea that help is available at all.
SCS Fact Sheet: Findings from the Southern California Public Opinion Survey on Housing Affordability Problem (The Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies: June 2005)
This fact sheet presents findings from a recently completed survey of residents in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties. The information from this survey can help better inform elected officials about the public's concerns and priorities; over the last five years high and rapidly increasing housing prices have created barriers to home ownership. Nearly two-fifths of the residents in this region have encountered difficulties in finding affordable housing.
Steve Tripoli and Elizabeth Renuart, Dreams Foreclosed: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-Stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams, (National Consumer Law Center: June 1, 2005)
This report details common tactics of foreclosure rescue scams and provides recommendations for policy and consumer action. These scams revolve around heavily promoted deals supposedly designed to save the homes of people facing foreclosure, those who've fallen behind on their mortgage payments. But with frightening regularity, this "help" from a "rescuer" either drains off the property's built-up equity or leaves the "rescuer" owning the house outright -- and the family evicted from their home. http://www.knowledgeplex.org/showdoc.html?id=98060
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2 (APRIL 15, 2005)
REPORTS AND PAPERS
Achieving a High-Quality Preschool Teacher Corps: A Focus on California
The issue brief, Achieving a High-Quality Preschool Teacher Corps: A Focus on California , examines the urgent need for a preschool teacher workforce in California that effectively addresses the needs of Latino children. The report analyzes the state's current situation and makes recommendations for how state leaders can ensure that California has a diverse, well-prepared preschool teacher workforce.
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/29957/
BRIDGE: Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Economy
By Eunice Hyunhye Cho, Francisco Arguelles Paz y Puente, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, and Sasha Khokha (2004)
BRIDGE is a popular education resource of exercises and tools for immigrant and refugee community organizations, and other allies of immigrants and refugees. It features eight workshop modules that include activities, discussion questions, fact sheets, and other resources to help build dialogue, engagement, and shared action within and between communities.
http://www.nnirr.org/news/news_pub_archive.html
Concerns with Senate Finance Committee Proposal to Make Certain Immigrants Ineligible for the EITC
March 2005
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a critical tax credit for low-income workers. It is of particular importance to immigrant families: immigrant workers disproportionately fill lower-wage jobs, and their families are less likely to have access to income supports beyond the EITC due to immigration status-based restrictions in many public benefits programs. This brief reviews the current law and the negative impacts of the new proposal on it. www.nilc.org .
Baltimore's Day Laborer Report: Their Stolen Sweat
By Casa de Maryland and the Homeless Persons Representation Project
December 2004
This report contains in-depth interviews with Latino day laborers and labor pool workers. The findings of this report indicate that these laborers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by their employers due to language barriers, immigration status and unfamiliarity with their rights in the workplace; both immigrant and African-American workers are often underpaid for their work and commonly not paid overtime; they are subject to frequent verbal assaults by their employers or crew chief and they are at greater risk for job-related injuries than permanent workers because they do not receive the proper safety equipment or training. www.casademaryland.org/ .
Defending Immigrants Rights: An Activist Resource Kit
By the Political Research Associates
This kit focuses on how to deal with the resurgence of anti-immigrant organizing; how to respond to anti-immigrant arguments; tips on how to identify important opponents and allies as well as information to help you understand the anti-immigrant movement generally. http://immigrantsolidarity.org .
Drafting Day Labor Legislation: A Guide for Organizers and Advocates
By Luna Yasui, Catherine Ruckelshaus, Amy Sugmimori and Rebecca Smith
February 2004
This report, prepared by the National Employment Law Project, provides advocates and day labor organizers with a step-by-step guide to drafting day labor legislation. Strong day labor legislation is necessary because while most state and federal employment and labor laws apply to day laborers, because of the short-term nature of the job and the various parties involved in the employment relationship, tailored approaches are a necessity. http://www.nelp.org/
Equality Works: Protecting low-wage workers in the state of Maryland
By the Maryland Latino Coalition for Justice and CASA of Maryland, Inc.
February 2005
This report includes testimony about the unfair or illegal treatment of low-wage workers and is designed to inform policymakers about the working and living conditions of low-wage workers. The report includes recommended policy changes to improve the working conditions of Maryland's low-wage workers. http://www.casademaryland.org/ .
Facts about the Hoffman case and International Law
By the National Employment Law Project
March 2005
This fact sheet discusses the controversial Supreme Court decision in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB . This is a seminal decision in immigrant workers' rights advocacy because the Court found that an undocumented worker who is illegally fired is not entitled to back pay or compensation for her lost work. http://www.nelp.org .
Fact Sheets: Immigrant Options for Undocumented Immigrant Children
January 2005
By the Immigrant Legal Resources Center
This collection of facts sheets includes the following titles: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status; Violence Against Women Act; Family Visas; U Visas; U.S. Citizenship; Asylum; and Temporary Protected Status.www.ilrc.org.
Getting to Work , a study of programs to teach immigrants language and job skills
May 2004
This AFL-CIO report investigates eight programs--either products of union and employer partnerships or programs that consciously work with unions and their signatory employers in order to access the better jobs in their communities--that demonstrate a variety of promising practices that help workers with limited English proficiency (LEP) get and keep good jobs.
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/immigration/
Hispanic Housing and Homeownership
Janis Bowdler
August 2004
This statistical brief outlines current housing conditions of Latino households including affordability, building quality, and rates of homeownership. State-specific data on the White-Latino homeownership gap are also included.
http://www.nclr.org/content/browse/publications?forsale=1
Immigration Reform: Comprehensive Solutions for Complex Problems
By Michele Waslin, Ph.D.
December 2004
This Issue Brief outlines the current immigration system, explains why the current system is inadequate and needs to be overhauled, and lays out NCLR's principles for comprehensive immigration reform.
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/28596
Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos in the U.S. Criminal Justice System
Multiple Authors
September 2004
Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos in the U.S. Criminal Justice System examines the available data on the status of Latinos in the criminal justice system. It offers an extensive look at how the U.S. criminal justice system works, the factors underlying the overrepresentation of Latinos in the system, and the specific problems associated with the prosecution and treatment of individuals with substance abuse dependency issues. The discussion also provides an analysis and recommendations for replacing the downward spiral of incarceration and recidivism with smart solutions leading to positive outcomes for Latinos and community safety.
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/27567
Questions and Answers about the "REAL ID Act" Drivers License Restrictions
March 2005
The National Immigration Law Center provides answers to frequent questions about the REAL ID Act including who is affected by it and how it really works.
Fact Sheet for Immigrants Filing Income Tax Returns
National Employment Law Project
April 2004
This fact sheet provides useful information regarding the tax obligations of immigrant workers, including undocumented workers.
http://www.nelp.org/
The Mainstreaming of Hate: A Report on Latinos and Harassment, Hate Violence, and Law Enforcement Abuse in the '90s
Carmen T. Joge with Sonia M. Pérez
May 2004
The Mainstreaming of Hate documents the growing problem of harassment, hate violence, and law enforcement abuse against Latinos in the U.S.
http://www.nclr.org/content/browse/publications?forsale=1
VIDEOS AND OTHER MEDIA
Best Practices in representing Asylum-Seekers: A Video Resource for Pro Bono Attorneys
By Michele R. Pistone
ALI-ABA has developed a new DVD and training materials to teach lawyers best practices in representing immigrants in asylum cases.
The New Americans
Featuring a teacher guide, a brief history on immigration in America and a page of commonly held myths and misconceptions about immigrants, The New Americans is a website that features a range of information about immigrant issues.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/index.html
Beyond the Border-Más Allá de la Frontera
March 2005
BEYOND THE BORDER - Más Allá de la Frontera is a web and video documentary by PBS that traces the painful transition made by four sons in a Mexican family as they leave behind their parents and sisters and struggle to overcome cultural, class and language barriers in Kentucky.
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/beyondtheborder/story.html
ARTICLES
E. THOMAS MCCLANAHAN, LEGAL OR NOT, HERE THEY COME; Bush's plan to update law for those who cross U.S. borders would benefit economy, security , The Kansas City Star, March 29, 2005, 1 EDITION, B; Pg. 7.
Paul A. Harris, ASYLUM SEEKERS ARE SUBJECT TO HARSH TREATMENT, The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia), March 27, 2005, EDITORIAL; Pg. A05.
Jennifer W. Sanchez, American dream gone: One longtime resident plans to return to Mexico rather than give up her driver license , Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), March 27, 2005, Pg. B1.
The Associated Press State & Local Wire, Judge throws out attempt to broaden Arizona's immigration measure, March 15, 2005.
Cindy Gonzalez, Tuition plan buoys immigrants' hopes Undocumented students who qualify would pay instate rates under the legislative bill , Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska), March 10, 2005, MIDLANDS EDITION, Pg. 01A.
The Associated Press State & Local Wire, Regents support in-state tuition for illegal immigrants' kids , March 6, 2005.
Tyche Hendricks, Issue of illegals roiling Arizona; New law denies public services to such immigrant, The San Francisco Chronicle, FEBRUARY 28, 2005, FINAL EDITION, Pg. A1.
Juliet V. Casey, Immigrants hear good advice, bad news , Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada), February 26, 2005 Saturday, FINAL EDITION, B, Pg. 1B.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 (JANUARY 15, 2005)
Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, Structural Racism and Community Building, June 2004. ( http://www.aspeninstitute.org/Programt1.asp?bid=13013&i=83 )
Clearing House Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, Representing Immigrant Families , Volume 38, Numbers 5-6, September-October 2004.
Institute for Democratic Renewal and Project Change Anti-Racism Initiative, A Community Builder's Tool Kit , Institute for Democratic Renewal. (http:// www.projectchange.org/publications/toolkit.pdf)
Nancy E. Walker, J. Michael Senger, Francisco A. Villarruel and Angela M. Arboleda, Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos in the US Justice System, National Council of La Raza, October 2004.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 (OCTOBER 15, 2005)
Ryan King and Marc Mauer, "The Vanishing Black Electorate: Felony Disenfranchisement in Atlanta, Georgia," The Sentencing Project , September 2004, http://www.sentencingproject.org/pubs_05.cfm .
This report explores how the high rate of disenfranchisement in the Africa-American community manifests itself at the community level.
Green, Donald P., "Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout," Brookings Institution Press (March 1, 2004).
Get Out the Vote! Is a practical guide for anyone trying to mobilize voters or organize at the grass roots. Since 1998 the authors have conducted research in over a dozen states, studying a wide range of federal, state, and municipal elections. Their book connects theory with practice, informing campaign professionals and local organizers as well as students of electoral politics. They discover that many GOTV tactics used by campaign managers and political consultants are less effective than is often believed. The authors, relying on rigorous and systematic research, challenge much of the conventional wisdom about what works and what doesn't in the political campaigns.
Federal Election Commission, "Developing a User-Centered Voting System," October 2003, http://www.eac.gov/eac_pub.asp?format=none .
This guide, titled Developing a User-Centered Voting System, is written for voting system developers who want to enhance their user interface design process to ensure system usability. It is also written for election officials involved in voting system procurements who seek greater insight into preferred user interface design practice. It outlines the basic steps of a user-centered design process that will help ensure a more usable and accessible voting system.
Federal Election Commission, "Procuring a User-Centered Voting System," October 2003, http://www.eac.gov/eac_pub.asp?format=none .
This guide is written for election officials who seek a voting system best suited to their constituents' needs and preferences. It provides a brief history on the current movement toward user-centered voting systems. It outlines the kind of process steps that voting system manufacturers should follow if they want to be assured of a user-friendly, accessible solution. Also, it provides a short checklist of user-friendly characteristics to look for in a good voting system - characteristics that may seem obvious but may become subordinated during the course of a complex and lengthy procurement effort unless they are spotlighted.
Federal Election Commission, "Usability Testing of Voting Systems ," October 2003, http://www.eac.gov/eac_pub.asp?format=none
This guide is written for voting system manufacturers who may be developing new systems and for election officials who may be procuring new voting systems. It presents a rationale for conducting usability tests, outlines the basic steps in the testing process, and shares lessons learned from prior test experience.
Harvard University Institute of Politics, "Are You Talking to Me: A Guide to Reaching Young Voters," http://www.iop.harvard.edu/research_polling.html .
This booklet draws from research by the Institute of Politics, as well as research conducted by some of the nation's other leading organizations dedicated to promoting youth political and civic engagement. It aims to provide valuable information for candidates, political parties, and the media about youth participation in the electoral process.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3 (JULY 15, 2004)
Audra L. Wassom, "The Help America Vote Act of 2002 and Selected Issues in Election Law Reform," 2003.
A look at ballot design, voter errors, and counting accuracy and the voting errors that result from them.
Blake Morant, "Electoral Integrity: Media, Democracy, and the Value of Self-Restraint," Alabama Law review, Fall 2003.
Barry Richard, " In Defense of Two Supreme Courts ," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy, Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 1-21.
An analysis of the actions taken by the justices of the Supreme Court of Florida and the United States Supreme Court during the litigation over the results of the 2000 presidential election.
Edmund S. Sauer, "Arbitrary and Disparate Obstacles to Democracy: The Equal Protection Implications of Bush V. Gore on Election Administration," DePaul Law review, Spring 2004.
A look at how the Help America Vote Act of 2002 tries to address the problems encountered during the 2000 Presidential election in preparation for the Presidential election in 2004.
Elena Saxonhouse, "Unequal Protection: Comparing Former Felons' Challenges to Disenfranchisement and Employment Discrimination," University of Stanford law Review, May 2004.
This article takes a look at the challenges faced by former felons in the context of disenfranchisement and employment discrimination.
Gabrielle B. Ruda, "A Critical Analysis on the Debate of the 2002 Help America Vote Act," Fordham Urban Law Journal. November 2003.
A look at the issues surrounding the Act and the debate that wages over it, especially in terms of ID requirements and falsified registration lists.
Glory Ross, "Constitutional Law: Protecting Equal Protection, Bush v. Gore, 531U.S.98 (2000)," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp.173-182.
A commentary on Bush v. Gore, 531U.S.98 (2000).
John R. Cosgrove, "Four New Arguments Against the Constitutionality of Felony Disenfranchisement," Thomas Jefferson School of Law San Diego Law Review, Spring 2004.
This article offers an examination of constitutionality of felon disenfranchisement.
Jon Mills, "Reforms in Florida After the 2000 Presidential Election," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 69-80.
This article addresses the movement for reform in Florida, which yielded the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001.
Mark Tushner, "The History and Future of Bush V, Gore," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 23-35.
This article places Bush v. Gore in the context of the historical development of the right to vote, and speculates about the decision's doctrinal future by attempting to identify the underlying constitutional violation of Florida's provisions more carefully.
Monique Dixon, "Minority Disenfranchisement During the 2000 General Election: A Blast from the Past or a Blueprint for Reform," Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review, Volume 11, Spring 2002, Number 2, pp. 311-325.
This article argues that the 200 presidential election has uncovered two realities: the problems states are experiencing as they implement the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 and the extent to which racial minorities and the poor are systematically being denied the benefits of the Act's provisions. It also argues that as states strive to implement reform initiatives to correct some of the problems that occurred on Election Day 2000, state legislators, civil rights advocates and community activists should work collectively to implement reforms that will complement NVRA and not compromise it.
Richard K. Scher, "Grasping at Straws, Rushing to Judgment: Election Reforms in Florida, 2001," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 81-102.
An examination of the voting errors that occurred during the 2000 Presidential election in Florida and the reforms aimed at fixing them.
Sandra Ferguson Chance and Colleen Connolly-Aher, "A Vote of Confidence? Florida's Public Records Law and the 2000 Presidential Election recounts: Could It Happen in Any Other State?" University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy,Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 135-152.
This article suggests that legislators, state attorneys general, election officials, citizens, and members of the media in the forty-nine other states carefully review their laws and consider the importance of access to government information in ensuring our democracy and maintaining confidence in our election process.
Terri Susan Fine, "Constitutionality, Legitimacy and Political Participation: A Look at First -Time Voters in 2000," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 153-171.
The constitutionality-legitimacy gap in elections is discussed through the lens of the first-time voter.The article focuses on younger first-time voters during the 2000 Presidential election and contends that group was most acutely affected by the turmoil of the election.
Tom Fiedler, "Who's responsible for a Tainted Ballot?" University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy, Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 63-67.
An inquiry into the root of the voting failures during the 2000 presidential election in Florida.The article seeks to discover if the government and the law have the responsibility to correct human mistakes.
Victoria Sutton, "The Electoral College-Now, More Than Ever," University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 103-116.
This article examines whether the electoral process as it stands is still a valid mechanism, especially in light of the 2000 Presidential election in which the popular vote did not determine the winner of the election.
GUIDES
Advancement Project, "Florida Legal Guide to fair Elections," June 2004.
This legal guide, published by Advancement Project and Thomasina Williams, a seasoned and highly respected attorney in Miami, Florida, provides an overview of federal and state laws that impact the voting rights of citizens in Florida.
Advancement Project, " Delaware Guide to Restoration of Voting Rights ," April 2004.
This guide offers detailed information on the voting rights restoration process in Delaware including contact information and application forms.
Advancement Project, " Virginia Guide to Restoration of Voting Rights ," December 2003.
This guide offers detailed information on the voting rights restoration process in Virginia including contact information and application forms.
Center for Voting and Democracy, " Mapping our Future: A Public Interest Guide to Redistricting, " Updated January 2004.
This updated report now includes information about how redistricting has proceeded in each state.
League of Women Voters, " Choosing the President 2004: A Citizen's Guide to the Electoral Process ," 2003.
Choosing the President 2004 is a thorough, nonpartisan and voter-friendly guidebook to the players and events in an election. This guide is especially valuable for students and first-time voters.
Advancement Project, " RE-ENFRANCHISEMENT: A Guide for Individual Restoration of Voting Rights in States That Permanently Disenfranchise Former Felons," September 2002.
The report provides the first comprehensive guide for former felons who are seeking help in navigating through "the labyrinth of complex technicalities, convoluted legislative formulae, and other confusing procedural requirements standing in the way of their right to vote."
Brennan Center and Leadership Council on Civil Rights, "Recommendations for Improving Reliability of Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems," June 2004.
This report outlines specific recommendations for election officials whose jurisdictions will use electronic voting systems in the 2004 elections.
Demos, " Making Voting Easier: Election Day registration In New York," April 2004.
This report examines the effects of Election Day registration in New York on voter registration and turnout.
Electiononline.org, "Primary Education: Election Reform and the 2004 Presidential Race," January 2004.
A report by electionline.org and The Century Foundation examines both national and state-specific election reform issues that could have an impact on the 2004 primary election season.
Electiononline.org, "Securing the Vote," April 2004.
This is electionline.org 's seventh election reform briefing. It provides the first nonpartisan and non-advocacy look at the efforts to secure electronic voting.
Electiononline.org, " Election Reform 2004: What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why," January 2004.
This electionline.org report examines the state of reform in 2004 and finds that while many voters across the country will experience changes in 2004, others will find the voting process unchanged.
MALDEF, " Diminished Voting Power in the Latino Community: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in Ten Targeted States ," December 2003.
This report aims to answer several questions: What is the state of the data regarding Latino ex-felons, which provide the basis for determining the felony disenfranchisement rates for Latinos? Does the data indicate either in overall numbers or in rates that felony disenfranchisement is an issue, which the Latino community must confront? Are there states where Latinos may be affected either in overall numbers or in percentages that requires a strategy that includes targeted areas that may differ from more general data collections or data collections specifically targeting African-Americans? The report offers ten major conclusions form the study of the Latino data on felony disenfranchisement in the ten selected states of: Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
National Council of La Raza, "Mobilizing the Latino Vote: Tapping the Power of the Hispanic Electorate," July 2002.
This report undertakes initial research to draw a more complete picture of Latino voters and to identify strategies to maximize their voting power. It provides background on the Latino electorate and highlights the results of polls to gain a better understanding of what drives Latino voters, with respect to both issues and politics. The paper also examines the untapped potential of the Latino electorate, and analyzes the factors impeding its expansion. Finally, the paper concludes with guidance regarding what policymakers, political parties, private philanthropy, and the Hispanic community itself must do to tap the power of the Latino voter
National Council of La Raza, "Mobilizing the Vote: Latinos and Immigrants in the 2002 Midterm Election, " November 1, 2002.
This study includes a focus on the Latino electorate as well as on immigrant voters who may or may not be Hispanic, but whose demographic characteristics have much in common with Latinos in terms of population growth and distribution, and the proportion that participate in elections. Second, this study updates survey data with a variety of new, more recent sources, and highlights a number of community-based efforts aimed at increasing the participation of this segment of the electorate. Finally, it includes a preliminary assessment of November 2002 election results.
The Sentencing Project, "Jail-Based Voter Registration Campaigns ," May 2003.
This briefing paper highlights four campaigns designed to inform jail inmates of their voting rights and to enable inmates to register to vote. The campaigns highlighted are in Albany, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C., where organizations working both inside and outside jail systems have successfully accomplished voter registration.
The Sentencing Project, "State-Based Advocacy on Felony Disenfranchisement," February 2003.
This report assesses the successful advocacy efforts of coalitions in three states - Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland - in changing longstanding state policy on disenfranchisement. The case histories described in this report outline some of the key elements and strategies employed by state-based advocates.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "Is America Ready to Vote?" April 2004.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examines purge lists, voter disenfranchisement, the Florida registration process and more in the context of progress made since the 2000 Presidential Election.
Yale University, "The Challenge of Bringing Voter Mobilization 'To Scale': An Evaluation of Youth Vote's 2002 Phone Banking Campaigns," August 2003.
This report from Yale University details how campaigns can successfully engage and turn out young voters. It provides a blueprint for successfully conducting phone banks aimed at increasing turnout among young voters.
TESTIMONIES
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, "Election 2004: Is America Ready?" April 2004.
Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) testifies on issues of election reform and voting technology that our nation faces as we approach the 2004 election. The testimony discusses the ongoing controversy over electronic voting technology and perspective to the debate over voting technology, by highlighting a number of other, already very real threats that we face going into this November and future elections.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Testimony to the Maryland State Legislature on Felony Disenfranchisement , June 2002.
Testimony of Gregory Moore, Executive Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund in protest of the disenfranchisement laws in Maryland.
National Council of La Raza, "Testimony of Voting Technology and Language Minority Voters," May 2004.
Presented before the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in May 2004, this testimony discusses the advantages and challenges of different voting technologies and systems with respect to language-minority voters. Language-related barriers have a disparate, disproportionate, and negative effect on Latinos and other ethnic minorities. In the absence of both policy interventions and technological improvements, language-minority voters are more likely to be turned away or deterred from voting, and less likely to have the opportunity to cast a fully-informed vote, than other Americans.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 (APRIL 15, 2004)
EDUCATION
34th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes toward the Public Schools
The 35th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools comes at a time when relationships at the federal, state, and local levels with regard to K-12 education are increasingly complex, change is the mantra of the day, and money is short in almost every state. Attention is currently directed at efforts to improve student achievement, with special emphasis on those minorities and other groups that have traditionally been less successful in gaining the quality of education needed for future success. These differences in school success have come to be known as the "achievement gap," a gap that virtually everyone agrees must be closed. For a copy of this poll please visit http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0309pol.htm.
Quality Counts 2004: Count Me In: Special Education in an Era of Standards
Within a decade, federal law requires that all students—including those with disabilities—be performing at the "proficient" level on state tests. It's a challenge of unprecedented proportions, particularly for the nation's nearly 6.6 million children receiving special education services. Quality Counts 2004 examines this explosive issue. The report includes state specific data on efforts to include students with disabilities in standard-based education. Available at http://www.edweek.org/sreports/.
Brown at 50:The Promise Unfulfilled
Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, this special five-part series takes stock of the role of race in education, looking at key issues, developments, and localities. Available at http://www.edweek.org/sreports/.
Reporting School Violence
Reporting School Violence is the second in a series of bulletins by the U.S. Department of Justice. It provides an overview of state laws enacted in recent years to address violence in U.S. schools, particularly those laws concerning the collection of data and reporting of such incidents. Available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/bulletins/legalseries/bulletin...
Kluger, Richard, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education, the epochal Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation, and of black America's century-long struggle for equality under the law, Vintage Books, New York, 1975.
Meier, Deborah, Will Standards Save Public Education?. Boston, Massachusetts, 2000.
Ohanian, Susan, One Size Fits Few : The Folly of Educational Standards, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1999
Kohn, Alfie, The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “ Tougher Standards”, New York, New York, 1999.
Casella, Ronnie, “ Being Down”: Challenging Violence in Urban Schools, New York, New York, 2001.
Gittell, Marilyn J., Strategies for School Equity: Creating Productive Schools in a Just Society, New Haven, Conneticut, 1998.
Jones, Elaine R., Dismantling Desegregation, New York, New York, 1996.
Glickman, Carl, Letters to the Next President: What Can We Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education, New York, New York, 2004.
Wheelock, Anne, Crossing the Tracks: How “ Untracking” Can Save America’s Schools, New York, New York, 1992.
Greenberg, Jack, Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution, New York, Yew York, 1994.
National Bar Association Magazine, Special Issue: 50 Years Since Brown v. Board of Education, March/April 2004.
American School Board Journal Special Report, "Bending Toward Justice: The Unfinished Legacy of Brown v. Baord of Education,"April, 2004. Can be viewed at http://www.asbj.com/BrownvBoard/index.html.
YOUTH AND EDUCATION
Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students
Every teenager is different, young people say, but they all need teachers who know them well without violating their boundaries, who challenge them without humiliating or ignoring them. This book sets forth invaluable techniques for:
- Increasing engagement and motivation Teaching demanding academic material Reaching English language learners
- Creating classroom cultures where respect and success go hand in hand.
Available at http://www.WhatKidsCanDo.org/Publications/A_firesDirectory.html
The Schools We Need: Creating Small High Schools That Work For Us
What’s so different about a small high school, compared to a large one? When school leaders decide to create more small schools in their district, how do students experience the change in their everyday routines, as well as in their sense of power and possibility? In this publication two dozen students in Bronx, NY talk about their experiences planning and attending small schools and breaking down large high schools. (May 2003). Available at http://www.WhatKidsCanDo.org/Publications/A_PublicationsDirectory.html
Taking Democracy In Hand: Youth Action For Educational Change in the San Francisco Bay Area
More than field notes but less than a case study, this informal paper draws upon site interviews and conversations with ten Bay Area youth organizing groups, highlighting some of their burgeoning accomplishments and growing wisdom. It also sketches how their work builds, step-by-step, capital and capacity among participants; why youth-adult partnerships are important; where dots are being connected (between issues, between strategies, across races) and where they need connection (between youth and adult school reformers). Hoping to spur further discussion and analysis, the paper ends with a series of hard questions relevant to youth activists and adult partners everywhere—with much of the work in the Bay Area pointing to promising answers. (May 2002). Available at http://www.WhatKidsCanDo.org/Publications/A_PublicationsDirectory.html
Learning Outside the Lines: Six Innovative Programs That Reach Youth
This report, prepared in conjunction with the WK Kellogg Foundation, details distinctive learning environments, in and outside school, that garner from young people deep engagement and high achievement. Featured are the Llano Grande Center in Edcouch-Elsa, TX; the Educational Video Center in New York City; Best Practice High School in Chicago; the Algebra Project in Jackson, MS; The Food Project in Boston; and The Met in Providence, RI. (March 2002). Available at http://www.WhatKidsCanDo.org/Publications/A_PublicationsDirectory.html
COMMUNICATIONS
Loud and Clear in an Election Year: Amplifying the Voices of Community Advocates
Election years provide us with a ready-made, media-covered event -- we can use the hook to educate voters about the issues. Yet even some of the most sophisticated nonprofits don’t engage in election-year advocacy for fear of jeopardizing their nonprofit status. That’s why the SPIN Project created this new book, designed to offer grassroots-friendly solutions and strategies to legally seize election year opportunities, using communications as a tool to help groups advocate on behalf of their issues and their constituents.
Available at http://www.spinproject.org/resources/loudandclear.php3
SPIN WORKS! A Media Guidebook for the Rest of Us
SPIN Works! is an activist-friendly and extremely useful media guidebook produced by the SPIN Project. Comprising some 115 pages, the guidebook is full of tips, tactics and strategies designed to give grassroots organizers and people interested in positive social change basic and advanced skills for shaping public opinion on their issues through the press.
Available at http://www.spinproject.org
We the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Fighting for Democracy
A unique collaboration of over one hundred media organizations, critics, and activists, We the Media is filled with up-to-the-minute facts, figures, and commentary on the state of the media today. In irreverent and informative sections on ownership, commercialization, content, and access, the book makes plain the real dangers of increasing media concentration, and highlights efforts throughout the country to combat it.
Available at http://www.thenewpress.com/books/wemedia.htm
Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to Literacy, Video Production, and Social Change by Steven Goodman
Released in January 2003, Teaching Youth Media explores the power of using media education to help urban teenagers develop their critical thinking and literacy skills. Drawing on his twenty years of experience working with inner-city youth at the Educational Video Center (EVC) in New York City, Goodman looks closely at both the problems and possibilities of this model of media education. Available at http://www.whatkidscando.org/WhatsLearned/YouthMedia.html#teachingORGANI...
Dynamics of Organizing: Building Power by Developing the Human Spirit
Shel Trapp’s book describes his journey from early teenage traumas—including losing his father, brother and all his hair within a few years—to his struggles as a pastor with the United Methodist Church during the Civil Rights movement. Trapp found his true calling when he met Tom Gaudette, a star pupil of Saul Alinsky and started his lifelong career as a community organizer.
Within these pages, Trapp captures an insider’s look at the panic peddling in Chicago ’s race-torn Austin neighborhood in the ’60s, the campaign to end redlining in the ’70s and the creation one of the strongest disabled rights groups in the country during the ’80s.
Available through the National Training Information Center at http://www.ntic-us.org/publications/publications.htm
YOUTH VOICES/ORGANIZING
Youth Organizing: An Emerging Model for Working with Youth
Four just-released papers from the Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing look at the growing field of youth organizing, presenting the history of the movement, profiles of current groups, and its impacts on youth. Available at http://www.WhatKidsCanDo.org/Research/A_ResearchDirectory.html
Youth Rising
Released in Fall 2003 by the Applied Research Center, Youth Rising is an in-depth study of the motivation and identity, strategies, successes, and challenges of an emerging and growing youth organizing movement. Available at http://www.whatkidscando.org/research/youthactivism.html#Youth
Lessons in Leadership: How Young People Change Their Communities and Themselves
Social change organizations are leading the way in bettering the lives of youth across the country, according to Lessons in Leadership: How Young People Change Their Communities and Themselves. These groups are having success where many conventional youth development programs have not—namely with hard-to-reach youth. Available at http://www.theinnovationcenter.org/r_research.shtml
Youth Leadership for Development Initiative: Research Results from a Three-year Study on Youth Development and Civic Activism
This scholarly report demonstrates the link between civic activism and youth development and highlights the impact that civic activism can have on youth and community development. Available at http://www.theinnovationcenter.org/r_research.shtml
Youth in Decision-Making: A Study on the Impacts of Youth on Adults and Organizations
Based on interviews with youth and adults from 15 organizations, this 61-page report reflects the first significant research on the impacts young people have on adults and organizations when they are involved in significant decision-making roles. Available at http://www.theinnovationcenter.org/r_research.shtml
Between the Lines: Youth Conducted Study of The New York Times
In 2000, the nonprofit We INTERRUPT This Message partnered with YouthForce in the south Bronx to conduct a study of The New York Times’ portrayal of young people. The report’s nine authors, ages 16 to 18 examined 93 stories about youth crime published by The Times over a three-month period. Again and again, they turned found examples of young people of color “being stereotyped and criminalized.” Available at http://www.whatkidscando.org/WhatsLearned/YouthMedia.html#teaching
DEVELOPMENT
Effective Economic Decision-Making by Nonprofit Organizations
This new publication offers useful, practical guidelines to support today's nonprofit managers in their efforts to maximize the effectiveness with which their organizations employ their valuable resources. It provides solutions that are unique to nonprofits of any size, including pricing of services, compensation of staff, outsourcing, fundraising expenditures, and investment and disbursement of fund Available at http://fdncenter.org/marketplace/
LAW REVIEW ARTICLES
“Symposium: The Quest for Equal Educational Opportunity: Brown Nears 50, San Antonio Turns 30,” The American University Law Review, March 20-21, 2003.
“Symposium: Brown at Fifty: Introduction,” Harvard Law Review, VOL. 117, March, 2004.
SYMPOSIUM: BROWN AT FIFTY
Molly S. McUsic, "The Future of Brown v. Board of Education: Economic Integration of the Public Schools," Harvard Law Review, VOL. 117, March, 2004. Can be found online at: http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/117/5_5_2.pdf
Leland B. Ware, “Brown at 50 Symposium: Educational Equity and Brown v. Board of Education: Fifty Years of School Desegregation in Delaware,” Howard Law Journal, Winter 2004.
Katherine Tonnas, “The Legacy of Brown V. Board of Education," Louisiana Bar Journal, February/March 2004.
Pamela W. Carter, “From the Historical Perspective: Brown V. Board: 50 Years Later,” Louisiana Bar Journal, June/July 2003.
Melvyn R. Leventhal, “The Lawyer’s Bookshelf; Brown V. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution,” New York Law Journal, February 6, 2004.
Jonathan Lippmann, “Legal Profession Continues to Fulfill Spirit of ‘ Brown ‘,” New York Law Journal, January 26, 2004, Monday.
Jack M. Backlin, “Brown’s Potential, Still Unrealized: What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation’s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America’s Landmark Civil Rights Decision,” Harvard Law Review, May 2002.
Deborah Pines, “Promise of ‘ Brown v. Board of Education’ Unkept,” New York Law Journal, April 15, 1994, Friday.
John Denvir, “The Two Shades of Brown,” The Recorder, May 17, 1994, Tuesday.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 (JANUARY 14, 2004)
Mobilizing Community
Weiss, Mattie. “Youth Rising,” Applied Research Center (Fall, 2003), available at: www.arc.org
"From coast to coast, a new wave of youth organizing is taking form, built on a historical foundation of youth activism, and shaped by current cultural and political landscape."
“Community Building in Kansas City: Lessons Learned,”National Civic League, (2001), available at: http://www.ncl.org
"...our nation’s challenges can only be met by engaging citizens in problem solving in their own communities. As a nation we now have to focus on building problem solving capacity at the local level and engaging citizens in the process of community democracy..."
“Organizing for Social Change,”Midwest Academy (2001), available at: www.midwestacademy.com
This manual includes information on: The fundamentals of direct action organizing, developing a strategy, organizing models, building and joining coalitions, developing leadership, using the media, working with religious organizations and unions, and public speaking.
Health
“Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare: A Public Opinion Update,”Princeton Survey Research Association, available at: http://www.nccj.org
"Americans see racism as a problem for this nation in many areas, including healthcare. From receiving lesser quality medical care based on one's racial or ethnic background to the question of how often racism stands in the way of appropriate treatment, at least a plurality of the public sees a problem that needs to be resolved."
“Weaving a Story Beyond Our Wombs: Women of African Descent Speak Out on Reproductive Health Issues,”Ford Foundation Women of Color Initiative, available at The Praxis Project: http://www.thepraxisproject.org
"Black women's bodies have long been battlegrounds. All over the globe, Black women were victimized by the violent commodification of their reproductive capacity as part of chattel slavery...reproductive health issues occupy the axis of race, class, gender and age like few other social issues. Yet, few research models look at how these contexts intersect..."
Education
Barnhardt, Ray. “Reflections from the Field, Domestication of the Ivory Tower: Institutional Adapation to Cultural Distance,”Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Volume 33 (2), (2002): 1-12
"...for native students entering the university there are obvious differences in living conditions: dormitories, dining halls with non-native foods, the pub, downtown, and lots of rules and bureaucratic procedures...the ’ivory tower’ symbolizes detachment. The traditional campus environment is designed to protect faculty and students from ’the real world’ or put another way, it is a reality unto itself."
Barreto, Matt A. and Pachon Ph.D., Harry P. “The Reality of Race Neutral Admissions for Minority Students at the University of California: Turning the Tide or Turning Them Away?”The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (April, 2003) available at: http://www.trpi.org
"On July 20, 1995 the University of California (UC) Board of Regents approved Resolution SP-1...[T]aken together, 24,371 Black and Latino freshmen applications for admittance have been turned away from the University of California since the passage of SP-1..."
Christensen, Linda. “Reading, Writing and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word,”Rethinking Schools, available at: http://www.rethinkingschools.org
Includes topics such as “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us,”“Writing the Word and World,”“Untracking English,”“Immigration - what happened to the golden door?”and more.
Fletcher, Adam. “Meaningful Student Involvement, Guide to Inclusive School Change,”The Freechild Project (2003), available at: http://www.freechild.org
"The work of Meaningful Student Involvement is not easy or instantly rewarding. It demands that the system of schooling change, and that the attitudes of students, educators, parents and community members change."
Fraser, Alicia; Payne, Andrew; Wynn, Tameka. “The Mis Education of Griffin, Georgia”Georgia Research Project conducted by Project South, available at: http://www.projectsouth.org
“We pray, oh Lord, for strength in this warfare, because this is truly war,”a participant who opened the September Leadership Development Initiative in Griffin, Georgia proclaimed. “Her voice is prophetic because commitment to struggle is the most fundamental gift any parent can give. Do not mistake the fight for fair education as a simple task...it is a struggle - carried out by people in a movement.”
“Ed-Speak: Understanding Words Educators Use,”National Coalition of Education Advocates, available at: http://www.nceaonline.org
"Parents, teachers and the public don't always speak the same language. But, even when we do, what we mean by a word or phrase is not always the same...[O]n the following pages NCEA offers explanations for some terms used by educators and/or social change activists..."
Poverty and Homelessness
Tepper, Paul and Barrett Simpson, Jessica. “The Puzzle of the Los Angeles Economy, A Look at the Last Thirty Years,”Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center (October, 2003), available at: http://www.weingart.org/institute
"The Puzzle: If Dad was working thirty years ago, it was enough to support our family. If Mom and Dad were both working ten years ago, it was enough to support our family. Today, Mom and Dad are working and we're struggling to get by. What happened?"
Toolkits and Training Manuals
- Advocacy Tips, Families USA, available at: www.familiesusa.org Legislators
This toolkit contains a useful series of “advocacy tips”providing guidelines on different ways to contact your legislators: Visiting Legislators in Their Home District, The Letter, Email and the Internet, and The Telephone Call. - Getting Others Involved
This toolkit contains a useful series of “advocacy tips”with guidelines on how to create an informed and organized community around an issue: Getting Others Involved, How To Get Copies of Bills and Committee Reports, How a Bill Becomes a Law and Communicating with the White House. - Anti Predatory Lending Toolkit, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (March, 2002 - Second Edition), available at: www.ncrc.org
This toolkit contains great information on defining and recognizing the problem,building consensus in the community, the importance of national policy around anti-predatory lending, best practices, a legal toolbox, plus much more. - Equitable Development Toolkit: Beyond Gentrification, PolicyLink, available at: www.policylink.org
This toolkit includes topics such as: affordable housing 101, community mapping, minority contracting, local hiring strategies, retention of subsidized housing, and much more! - Fact Sheets from the National Center for Human Rights Education, available at: www.nchre.org
A series of useful fact sheets covering a variety of topics, including: Racism and Human Rights Education, Community Organizing and Human Rights Education, Environmental Justice and Human Rights, Violence Against Women, Workers Rights, Disability Rights and many more! - Fact Sheets from the National Employment Law Project, available at: www.nelp.org
A series of useful fact sheets covering a variety of topics, including: Day Laborers’ Rights under Federal Law: Waiting Time and Deductions from Wages (May, 2002); Your Rights When You Are Approached by the Police (June, 2003); Immigration Status and Workplace Rights (July, 2002); Wage and Hour - New York (January, 2002), plus many others. - Fact Sheets from The Center for Information & Research on Civil Learning & Engagement, available at: www.civicyouth.org
A variety of helpful facts sheets covering a variety of topics such as: Youth Demographics, How Young People Express Their Political Views, Civic Engagement Among Minority Youth, Electoral Engagement Among Latino Youth and many more. - Legal Observer Training Manual (2003), National Lawyers Guild, available at: www.nlg.org
"Legal Observers are typically, but not exclusively, law students, legal workers (for example, paralegals or employees of a community based organization that works on legal issues) and lawyers who may or may not be licensed locally...the primary role of the Legal Observer is to be the eyes and ears of the legal team - to observe and record incidents and activities of law enforcement in relation to the demonstrators." - Media Center, Southern Catalyst Network, available at: www.tulane.edu/~so-inst/catalyst/catalyst.htm
This Media Center provides quick and easy access to media outlets in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. - The Toolbox, Center for Participatory Change, available at: www.cpcwnc.org
This toolbox includes: “How to Enter a Community as an Organizer,”“The Building Blocks of Strong Grassroots Organizations,”“Forming as a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization,”“Writing a Press Release,”“Effective Public Speaking,”“How to Run a Good Meeting,”and “Participatory Change: CPC's Model for Supporting Grassroots Social Transformation in Rural Communities.” - Tips and Tools for Organizing Resolutions in Defense of the Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, available at: www.bordc.org
This toolkit contains information, including a step-by-step planning calendar on how you can organize your community to defend civil liberties against the Patriot Act. It also includes a list of 222 communities and states that have adopted resolutions in defense of the Bill of Rights. -
Research Center, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, available at: www.civilrights.org
This center includes an extensive list linking to 46 major civil rights Supreme Court decisions such as: Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Lau v. Nichols, Regents of the University of CA. v. Bakke, Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and more. - Youth Civic Engagement series from Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth, available at: www.ccfy.org/
This series includes: “Youth: An Overlooked Resource,”“The Vision,”“Guiding Principles,”“Approaches,”“Hampton, Virginia: A Model of Youth Civic Engagement,”“The Role of Community Foundations,”and “Resources.”
Voting
Bens, Charles K. “Electing Better Politicians: A Citizen's Guide,”Best Practice Consulting, available at: www.ncl.org
This guide "presents standards that voters can use to evaluate candidates for elective office. These guidelines have been used by teachers in their civic classes, by newspapers to create candidate scorecards and by citizens listening to candidate debates..."
Carbó, Steven. “Democracy Denied, The Racial History and Impact of Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States.”Demos (April, 2003), available at: www.demos-usa.org
"Contrary to popular belief, felony disenfranchisement laws are not part of the criminal justice system. Instead, they are state elections laws, enacted by state legislatures, governors, or hardwired into constitutions by constitutional conventions. Losing the right to vote is not in any way part of a criminal sentence- it is a ’collateral consequence’ dictated by state law."
Ewald, Eric. “Punishing at the Polls, The Case Against Disenfranchising Citizens With Felony Convictions.”Demos (September, 2003), available at: www.demos-usa.org
"Almost 4.7 million U.S. adults are now barred from voting because of a criminal conviction. The majority of these disenfranchised Americans are no longer incarcerated, and over a million of them have completed their sentences entirely. The United States is the only democracy that indefinitely bars so many ex-offenders from voting."
Fischer, Eric A. “Election Reform and Electronic Voting Systems (DREs): Analysis of Security Issue,.”Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report for Congress (November 4, 2003), available at: www.epic.org/privacy/voting/crsreport.pdf
"In July 2003, computer scientists from Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities released a security analysis of software purportedly from a direct recording electronic (DRE) touchscreen voting machine of a major voting-system vendor. The study drew public attention to a long-simmering controversy about whether current DREs are vulnerable to tampering that could influence the outcome of an election."
Tobin, Jeffrey. “The Great Election Grab: When does gerrymandering become a threat to democracy?”The New Yorker (December 8, 2003), available at: www.newyorker.com
“Voter Guide on Foreign Policy,”Peace Action, available at: www.peace-action.org
This voter guide has been prepared to educate the public on the candidate's positions on foreign policy issues: Nuclear Weapons, Human Rights & Democracy, International Cooperation and Spending Priorities.
Worker Rights
“Defending Worker Rights: Local Campaigns and Models,”National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support.
This report features the work of: Voces de la Frontera (VF) (Milwaukee, WI) regarding the rights of undocumented workers; Casa de Maryland (Silver Spring, MD) regarding day laborers; Merrimack Valley Project (MVP) (Lawrence, MA) regarding wage and transportation abuses; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) (Los Angeles, CA) regarding holistic approach to plight of day laborers; Workplace Project (Long Island, NY) regarding efforts to defeat anti-immigrant and anti-day labor legislation and Michigan Organizing Project (Muskegon, MI) regarding protections for undocumented workers in the work place.
"Low Pay, High Risk: State Models for Advancing Immigrant Workers" Rights National Employment Law Project (revised November, 2003), available at: www.nelp.org
This report covers various state laws providing language access, state-level campaigns, talking points on increased access for LEP workers; highlights various state efforts protecting confidential information on immigration status and refusals to enforce immigration laws; immigrant access to drivers' licenses. It also provides a discussion on the effects of the Hoffman Plastics decision and tools for ensuring continued protection and remedies for undocumented immigrants.
“Sus Derechos Comienzan en Casa: Protéjase en Su Trabajo Como Doméstica,”National Employment Law Project (2001), available at: www.nelp.org
This report, also available in English (Rights Begin at Home: Protect Yourself as A Domestic Worker), recognizes that domestic workers often do not have the benefit of insight and advice from co-workers, since most work alone. Based on New York law, this report is meant to help domestic workers become acquainted with their rights.
Valenzuela, Jr., Abel and Meléndez, Edwin. “Day Labor in New York: Findings from the NYDL Survey”(April, 2003), available at www.nelp.org
"This study focused on six broad areas: 1. Who are Day Laborers? 2. What are the earnings of Day Laborers? 3. What do Day Laborers Do? 4. Why work Day Labor? 5. Who hires Day Laborers? 6. Are Day Laborers Abused?"
Multi Racial Coalition Building and Race Relations
“MultiRacial Formations,”Applied Research Center, available at: www.arc.org
This report contains an overview of multiracial formations and focuses on: racial unity through issue-based coalitions, electoral alliances, the Rainbow Coalition, structural racism and much more.
“Denouncing Racism: A Resource Guide of Faith-Based Principles,”The National Conference for Community & Justice (January, 2002), available at: www.nccj.org
This report "addresses how the concept of being actively anti-racist is documented in most faiths' spiritual practices and policies. This unprecedented compilation of faith-and-spiritually-based principles lifts up the moral responsibility of each person of faith to reduce racism."
“Wrong Then, Wrong Now: Racial Profiling Before & After September 11, 2001,”Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, available at: www.civilrights.org
“This report compares the practice of ’traditional’ street-level racial profiling with the post-September 11 profiling of Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians. It concludes that profiling is just as wrong now as it was before the war on terrorism began...”Civil Rights and Public Policy
“NCLR Agenda for Hispanic Families: A Public Policy Briefing Book,”National Council of La Raza, available at: www.nclr.org
This report covers civil rights issues, economic mobility, education, health care, housing, immigration and other topics.
“Rights at Risk: Equality in an Age of Terrorism,”Report of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights (2002), available at: www.cccr.org
"This volume is the seventh in a series of reports...that chronicles the progress of the incumbent administration, executive branch agencies and Congress in carrying out both their moral and legal duties to end discrimination and to advance civil rights and opportunity for all Americans."
Community Economic Development
Bullard, Robert D., Johnson, Glenn S. and Torres, Angel O. “Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism & New Routes To Equity”(January, 2004), available at: www.southendpress.org
"Drawing on legal precedents, voices from the grassroots, and academic research, Highway Robbery bridges intellectual disciplines and activist movements by linking the national inequalities in transportation to larger economic, health, environmental justice and quality of life issues."
“The Broken Credit System: Discrimination and Unequal Access to Affordable Loans by Race and Age,”The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (December, 2003), available at: www.ncrc.org
"The credit system is broken and discrimination is widespread in America. NCRC finds that African-American predominantly elderly communities receive a considerably higher level of high cost subprime loans than is justified based on the credit risk of neighborhood residents."
“Reinvesting in The (Rural) South: An Advocate's Guide for Leveraging Capital from Private Sector Financial Institutions for Community Revitalization,”The Southern Rural Development Initiative, available at: www.srdi.org
"The purpose of this guide is to help advocates learn about the strategies that exist to overcome this barrier [getting banks and other private financial institutions to make capital available]. It contains information about the range of tools you can use..."
Policing
“The Public’s Truth - Los Angeles: Stories of Racial Profiling and the Attack on Civil Liberties”(from community testimony presented September, 2003), Applied Research Center, available at: www.arc.org
This report contains information obtained at the September 13, 2003 public testimonies of community members in Los Angeles recounting their experiences with policies and practices emerging post 9/11.
Miscellaneous
González, Rita. “An Undocumented History: A Survey of Index Citations for Latino and Latina Artists.”UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Report No. 2 (August, 2003), available at: www.chicano.ucla.edu
"Merging out of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s to the 1970s, Latina/o artists created both institutions and artwork in the service of their communities...The artwork provided the visual vocabulary for social protest..."
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 (OCTOBER 15, 2004)
Fundraising:
Baxa, Francisca Gonzalez. "How to Fund Your Community Economic Development Work." Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 236-243.
Klein, Kim. “Fundraising In Times of Crisis.”Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Volume 22, Number 4 (July/August 2003) .
Civil Rights:
D'Emilio, John. Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press, 2003.
Community Lawyering:
Binder, Steven R. “The Homeless Court Program: Taking the Court to the Streets.”Presented at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association 2003 Annual Conference.
Caftel, Brad J. “The relationship Between Lawyers and Low-Income Communities: Introduction to Essays on Community Economic Development and Economic Justice.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 129-131.
Cohen, Debra S. “IKEA Thwarted: Victory for Social Justice and Environmental Law.”Pace University School of Law, Volume 4, Number 2 (Spring 2001) .
Conner, Roger. “Community Oriented Lawyering: An Emerging Approach to Legal Practice.”National Institute of Justice Journal, January 2000: 26-33 .
Dolloff, Ross and Marc Potvin. “Community Lawyering-Why Now?”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 136-139.
Hair, Penda D. “Community Justice Lawyering and Community Economic Development Practice.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 145-148.
Harris, James T. (III) and Ira Harkavy. “Community Justice Lawyering and Community Economic Development Practice.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 149-153.
Palter, Michele Lang. “Connecting To Your Community Through Innovations In Legal Services.”Project Dandelion of Connecticut .
Community Economic Development
Cummings, Scott L. and Gregory Volz. “Toward a New Theory of Community Economic Development.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 158-168.
Liegeois, Nona. “Accountable Development: Maximizing Community Benefits from Publicly Supported Development.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 174-188.
Robbins, David E. “Community Economic Development Programs-an Opportunity for Lawyers to Reclaim Their Own Independence.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 169-173.
Segal, Jeffrey. “Setting Up a Community Economic Development Practice at a Legal Aid Program.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 224-235.
Smith, Whitney. “Skills Training as a Community Economic Development Strategy.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 253-258.
Stolz, Rich. “Steering Transportation Policy and Planning Toward Community Development.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 202-212.
Wohl, Jennifer. “The Child Care Economic Impact Report: A Tool for Economic Development.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 213-224.
Other:
Davis, Melinda and Loretta Price. “Seeds of Change: A Bibliographic Introduction to Law and Organizing.”Review of Law & Social Change, Volume 26, Number 4 (2000-2001): 615-668 .
Jacobs, Ellis. “Legal Aid's Role in the Fight for Telecommunications and Computer Access in Low-Income Communities.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 259-270.
LaBrie, Raquiba. “The Role of Foundations in Integrating Antipoverty Work into a Broader Systemic Change Agenda.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 140-145.
Little, John. “Legal Advocacy for Community Building in South Florida.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 132-135.
National Economic Development and Law Center. “Counseling Community Organizations.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 243-252.
Southern Regional Council. “Creative Collaborations: A Report On Six Multiracial Community-Building Project In The South.”January 2002: 1-42 .
Suenram, Tim. “Minority Poverty and the Faith Community.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 154-157.
Tawarao, Mona. “The Affordable Housing Complex That Could: How Community Economic Development Advocacy Secured 100 Units of Permanent Housing for Formerly Homeless Persons on Former Military Base.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 189-201.
Wrone, Steve. “Financial Education and Asset Building Opportunities for Low-Income Communities.”Clearinghouse Journal of Poverty and Law Policy, Volume 37, Numbers 3-4 (July-August 2003): 272-282.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 & 4 (JULY 14, 2003 & MAY 10, 2003)
Role of Public Interest Lawyers:
Jonathan L. Hafetz, “Homeless Legal Advocacy: New Challenges and Directions for the Future,”Fordham Urban Law Journal, March 2003.
Leslie Palk, "Surveying Communities: A Resource for Community Justice Planners," Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice (2003), available at http://www.courtinnovation.org/pdf/surveying_communities_bja.pdf.
Legal Education:
Daniel B. Rodriguez, “Taking the Offensive: Foreword: Public Interest Lawyering and Law School Pedagogy,”San Diego Law Review, Winter 2003.
Community Policing/Community Courts:
Greg Berman & Anne Bulick, “Problem Solving Courts and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Just The (Unwieldy, Hard to Gather but Nonetheless Essential) Facts, Ma'am: What we Know and Don't Know About Problem Solving Courts,”Fordham Urban Law Journal, March 2003.
Multiracial Coalition Building:
Kevin R. Johnson, “The Case for African American and Latina/o Cooperation in Challenging Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement,”Florida Law Review, January 2003.
FEATURED ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 (NOVEMBER 10, 2002)
Victor M. Hwang, “The Hmong Campaign for Justice: A Practitioner's Perspective,”Asian Law Journal, May 2002.
This case study describes the Hmong campaign to restore food stamp eligibility for immigrants. Political, educational, and legal strategies, among others, contributed to this successful national policy reform campaign resulting from a strong community/lawyer partnership. The article also addresses the need for lawyers working with communities to understand the historical and cultural contexts of each community.
Gregory L. Volz, Keith W. Reeves & Erica Kaufman, “Symposium Issue: Lawyering for a New Democracy: Higher Education and Community Lawyering: Common Ground, Consensus, and Collaboration for Economic Justice,”2002 Wisconsin Law Review, No. 2.
Analyzes community lawyering as a new strategy for the Community Economic Development (CED) movement. “[A] new CED vision is critical to a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy and can play a catalytic role in linking community residents to the knowledge and resources needed to transform their living environments. In collaboration with other institutional partners, CED can spark civic engagement and build new social capital. Although primarily conceptualized as a business and economic strategy, CED is a useful model for community lawyering to assist both non-economic and economic community change”Id. at 522. The article posits that CED can utilize two strategies to bring about structural and systemic reform: 1) helping to build institutions controlled by residents of the neighborhood; and 2) reforming the systems contributing to poverty and dysfunction. It concludes that this strategy requires a “new breed”of CED lawyer, who “wears many hats: lawyer, organizer, broker, social worker, psychologist, fundraiser, and friend”Id. at 535. The article also suggests that universities should participate in new anti-poverty coalitions, forming partnerships with community organizations and community lawyers.
Scott L. Cummings & Ingrid V. Eagly, “A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing,”48 UCLA L. Rev. 443 (2001).
“[S]cholars and practitioners -- recognizing that innovative advocacy is required to address the needs of the poor in this prosperous postwelfare, post-civil rights era -- have begun to revisit the question of what role the law and lawyers should play in struggles for social justice. What has emerged is a politically revitalized approach to progressive legal practice, the “law and organizing movement.”This article provides a useful history of the fusion of law and organizing and briefly summarizes the model’s emergence in three practice areas (workers’ rights, environmental justice and community development). The article goes on to examine of some of the structural, practical, and ethical issues posed by this new approach.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS
- Martha Minow, “Symposia: Third Annual Peter M. Chcchino Awards Program: Lawyering at the Margins: Lawyering for Human Dignity,”American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, 2003.
- Susan D. Bennett, “Symposium Issue: Lawyering for a New Democracy: Little Engines that Could: Community Clients, Their Lawyers, and Training in the Arts of Democracy,”Wisconsin Law Review, 2002.
- Stacy L. Brustin, “Legal Services Provision Through Multidisciplinary Practice-Encouraging Holistic Advocacy While Protecting Ethical Interests,”Colorado Law Review, Summer 2002.
- Bill Ong Hing, “Panel 3: APA Grassroots Community Organizing: Panel 3: Nonelectoral Activism in Asian Pacific American Communities and the Implications for Community Lawyering,”UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal, Spring 2002.
- Susan R. Jones, “Symposium Issue: Lawyering for a New Democracy: Current Issues in the Changing Roles and Practices of Community Economic Development Lawyers,”Wisconsin Law Review, 2002.
- Carrie Menkel-Meadow, “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers: When Litigation is Not the Only Way: Consensus Building and Mediation as Public Interest Law,”Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 2002.
- Louise G. Trubek, “Symposium Issue: Lawyering for a New Democracy: Foreword,”Wisconsin Law Review, 2002.
- Kelly Keenan Trumpbour, “Serving the Poor: The Need for Unification within Today's Legal Services,”MARGINS, Spring 2002
Three very different types of legal services structures that have emerged over time: community education, multidisciplinary practice, and impact and individual litigation. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each of these structures, emphasizing the need for multi-disciplinary collaboration in order to effectively deliver a more comprehensive system of assistance to the poor. The author recommends collaboration and unification, both within the lawyering community and between lawyers and other professionals, in an attempt to bring about increasingly innovative solutions to assist the poor.
LEGAL EDUCATION
- Dina Schlossenbert, “Promoting Justice Through Interdisciplinary Teaching, Practice, and Scholarship: An Examination of Transactional Law Clinics and Interdisciplinary Education,”Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 2003.
- Katherine R. Kruse, “Biting Off What They Can Chew: Strategies for Involving Students in Problem-Solving Beyond Individual Client Representation,”Clinical Law Review, Spring 2002.
- Shin Imai, “Papers Presented at the UCLA/IALS Conference on Problem Solving in Clinical Education: A Counter-Pedagogy for Social Justice: Core Skills for Community-Based Lawyering,”Clinical Law Review, Fall 2002.
- Richard L. Abel, “Colloquium: What Does it Mean to Practice Law ëIn the Interests of Justice’ in the Twenty-First Century?: Choosing, Nurturing, Training and Placing Public Interest Law Students,”Fordham Law Review, April 2002.
- V. Pualani and Lois H. Kanter, “Papers Presented at the UCLA/IALS Conference on Problem Solving in Clinical Education: Whoís Listening? Introducing Students to Client-Centered, Client-Empowering, and Multidisciplinary Problem-Solving in a Clinical Setting,”Clinical Law Review, Fall 2002.
- Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, “Papers Presented at the Rutgers-Newark Law School Conference on ’The Social Justice Mission of Clinical Education’: Learning Through Service in a Clinical Setting: The Effect of Specialization on Social Justice and Skills Training,”Clinical Law Review, Spring 2001.
- Andrea M. Seielstad, “Community Building as a Means of Teaching Creative, Cooperative, and Complex Problem Solving in Clinical Legal Education,”Clinical Law Review, Spring 2002.
This article emphasizes the importance of integrating alternative problem solving skills and a broader depth of understanding of the client and clientís community into law school curriculum. It advocates that students work with community groups and community lawyers, because of the broad array of roles, experiences, and interactions that they will encounter. This approach will help law students develop creative, humanistic, and technical skills and a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the problems that exist. Seielstad recognizes the need for students to explore problem-solving beyond the boundaries of most clinical programs, and sets forth a plan integrate community lawyering work into the curriculum.
COMMUNITY POLICING; COMMUNITY PROSECUTION; COMMUNITY COURTS
- Anthony V. Alfieri, “A Colloquium on Community Policing: Community Prosecutors,”California Law Review, October 2002
- Susan Finlay, Richard Hopper, and John S. Goldkamp, "Problem Solving Courts: From Adversarial Litigation to Innovative Jurisprudence: Eleventh Annual Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges: Thursday, February 28, 2002: Afternoon Session: The Changing Face of Justice: Alternative Approaches to Problem Solving,"Fordham University School of Law: Fordham Urban Law Journal, June 2002.
- This symposium session provides a historical and theoretical overview of problem-solving courts, as well as an examination of case studies. Problem-solving courts are analyzed as an alternative for addressing specific, complex problems that individuals and communities face (such as drug use and domestic violence), which were not being adequately or appropriately addressed by larger, more centralized courts. This symposium session explores the context out of which problem-solving courts arose, some of the problems and successes that problem-solving courts have experienced, and the direction for the future of these courts.
- Anthony C. Thompson, “It Takes a Community to Prosecute,”Notre Dame Law Review, February 2002.
