Jacksonville, FL – 150 people attended the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) annual “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner” on April 26. Hosted at the Sheraton in Deerwood, the dinner drew clergy, politicians and activists from across the Jacksonville community.

Reverend Dr. C.T. Vivian was the keynote speaker. Vivian, a close associate of King and a Freedom Rider, worked to integrate the South during the Civil Rights movement. In 1964, Vivian fought 'whites only' beach segregation with 'wade-ins' at Saint Augustine Beach. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members physically attacked the brave waders in the water. The sheriff's office arrested the civil rights waders. Dr. Vivian's efforts contributed to passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dr. Vivian delivered an impassioned speech at the dinner calling for activists to recognize the class struggle taking place in the U.S. and to renew the mission of Dr. King for a new generation. He also called on older activists to create a space for young activists to get involved and lead the modern struggle against racism.

During his speech, Vivian criticized politicians who promise the African-American community change but do not deliver when they are elected, “It's important that any time we have a gathering like this with politicians in the room, we talk openly about these issues.” He continued by directly addressing Jacksonville's Mayor Alvin Brown, who was present at the dinner, by saying, “We should support the mayor and the city council when they are on the right side, and we should throw them out when they don't follow through.” His comments drew huge applause from the audience.

At the dinner, the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition (JPC) received the “Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award for Legends, Pioneers and Trailblazers.” The JPC, founded in 2012, worked closely with the SCLC to successfully change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School. In 1959, white segregationists named Forrest High after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Reverend Opio Sokoni, the President of the Jacksonville chapter of the SCLC, wrote of the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, “Your organization helped to lead the fight which changed the name of Westside High School from the KKK's first Honorary Grand Wizard, Nathan B. Forrest. You also stood vigilant for justice against the killing of Jordan Davis, among other causes.” Sokoni continued, “This award is in response to the JPC's activist fight against racism in the City of Jacksonville, Florida. The SCLC of Jacksonville is proud to serve beside you.”

The SCLC and the JPC led the protests outside the trial of Michael Dunn, the racist vigilante who murdered 17-year-old African-American youth Jordan Davis in Jacksonville. Dunn was convicted on several attempted murder charges but received a mistrial for murdering Davis. Protesters led a night march demanding the resignation of State Attorney Angela Corey after the verdict.

Additionally, the JPC is working on a citywide campaign to pass a Human Rights Ordinance through the city council which extends civil rights protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

In addition to Vivian and the JPC, other important civil rights leaders and activists in the community were honored, including Pastor R.L. Gundy and J.T. Johnson, both with the SCLC, and Pastor Landon Williams, who distinguished himself with his staunch pro-worker activism.

The Jacksonville Progressive Coalition is planning protests in solidarity with Marissa Alexander, who is being retried by State Attorney Angela Corey in July 2014. Alexander is the 33-year-old African American mother originally convicted for firing a warning shot to fend off her abusive husband. There are growing calls nationwide for the resignation of State Attorney Angela Corey and freedom for Marissa Alexander.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #AntiRacism #KuKluxKlan #SouthernChristianLeadershipConference #MarissaAlexander #JacksonvilleProgressiveCoalition

Nashville, TN – On Feb. 25 over 30 youth, mostly African American and Latino, rallied on Legislative Plaza at the State Capitol to demand an end to racial profiling and a repeal of Tennessee’s version of the “Stand Your Ground” law. The event was organized by the American Baptist College chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Protesters marched around the entrance to the Tennessee Legislature holding signs, handing out flyers and chanting, “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” “Brown skin is not a crime!” and “Black skin is not a crime!”

A number of organizations rallied, including Workers Dignity Project, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). Protesters held signs saying, “Stand your ground is racial profiling,” “Give us peace. Don’t leave us in pieces!” and “50 years later.” This last one was referencing the 50 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that SCLC played a pivotal role in winning.

Many at the rally spoke about the murders of African American and Latino youth by police, and by racists such as George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn. They demanded justice for Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Oscar Grant and all the youth whose lives have been cut short by racist murderers. They spoke of the outrage they felt and the injustice of a system that lets child killers like Zimmerman walk free and allows Dunn to be found not guilty of murder in Jacksonville, Florida. They vowed to continue the fight to end racial profiling and the attacks on African American and Latino youth.

A lead organizer for the event, Evan Regis of the SCLC said, “The lynchings still continue and the lynchings of Black and Brown brothers and sisters allows us to see that the fight for freedom must also continue. Racial profiling has resulted in Black brothers being 80% of the prison population today and we need to stop the lynching and the discrimination against our brothers and sisters. Legislators are holding the noose around our Black brothers! Laws and policies are squeezing the breath out of our Black brothers! Legislators are still holding the noose on Black bodies. The fight for freedom still continues.”

#NashvilleTN #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #AntiRacism #RacialProfiling #SouthernChristianLeadershipConference #StandYourGround

Jacksonville, FL – Over 35 protesters gathered here outside of the Duval County Courthouse, Feb. 4, for the first day of jury selection in the trial of Michael Dunn, the racist killer of 17-year-old African American youth Jordan Davis. Holding signs and chanting together, the crowd demanded “Justice for Jordan” and the conviction of Dunn.

The case has drawn national attention for its similarities to the murder of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Dunn shot and killed Davis in November 2012 at a Gate gas station in Jacksonville, for Davis allegedly playing loud music from his car. Prosecutors charged Dunn with first-degree murder after his arrest.

Members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the New Jim Crow Movement and the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition attended the protest, along with other concerned members of the Jacksonville community.

“The sentiment of the people out there was, enough is enough,” said Wells Todd, an organizer with the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition and one of the protesters. “The theme was that we need to get rid of Angela Corey, stop stand-your-ground [laws] and win justice for Jordan Davis.”

Todd's quote speaks to the continued outrage by African Americans and others in Florida at state attorney Angela Corey's role in the botched prosecution of George Zimmerman and her racist prosecution of Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother whose conviction for resisting domestic abuse was recently overturned.

Corey's office, which is prosecuting Dunn, drew criticism from the Jacksonville community when she filed a motion to limit the public and the media's access to the trial. Judge Russell Healey, who is handling the Dunn trial, agreed with Corey's stance and ordered to prevent the public from accessing evidence and case materials for 30 days. A First District Court of Appeals decision overturned Healey's decision, allowing the public and the media greater access to the trial.

At one point in the protest, local police from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office instructed protesters to leave the courthouse on orders from Judge Healey.

“A police officer gave me a court order from the judge that forced us to move from the courthouse onto the grass,” explained Todd. “If there was a large enough turnout from the community, there's no way they could control where we stood.”

The trial has drawn international attention and controversy. An English documentary crew was present outside the courthouse and interviewed protesters about the issues at play in the trial.

Although the fact that Dunn shot and killed Davis unprovoked is not in dispute, protesters still doubt that the legal system will deliver justice for Davis and other African American youth victimized by police and racist vigilantes. Most of the people at the protest were active in the Justice for Trayvon Martin movement that erupted across the country when the court failed to convict George Zimmerman last July.

“With the atmosphere the way it is, it could go either way,” said Todd. “I don't see a slam dunk. I think people saw a slam dunk with Zimmerman too. The reason I say that is because the pressure has to come from outside, and from what I see, it's not there yet. The fear that's been out there for so many years, brought on by the mass media and the politicians, has really divided the white and black communities [in Jacksonville].”

The prospects for a larger movement demanding an end to the racist killing of African American youth are not without hope, though. Todd continued, “What I thought was interesting yesterday is that the people who walked by the signs we were holding – whether they were white or black – agreed with what we were saying. People who walked by made supportive comments – white or Black. But we don't know what the courts are going to do. The courts are this racist institution that's hell-bent on oppressing and demoralizing the African American community. It's something the African American community needs to understand.”

Jury selection concluded on Feb. 5 and the trial will begin on Feb. 6. Another courthouse protest is planned for the morning of Feb. 6 to coincide with the first day of the trial.

Organizers from the SCLC, the New Jim Crow Movement and the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition plan to hold events throughout the trial to pressure the criminal injustice system into delivering a guilty verdict.

#JacksonvilleFL #InJusticeSystem #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #SouthernChristianLeadershipConference #JordanDavis #Antiracism #JacksonvilleProgressiveCoalition #MichaelDunn #NewJimCrowMovement

For this year’s holiday honoring Dr. King, we are printing 3 commentaries on King’s political thinking that are important for understanding today’s situation – Fight Back! editors.

The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been a national holiday for the last twenty years. It is a time to remember his life, to reflect on the changes brought about by the Civil Rights movement and to recommit ourselves to his struggle for peace, economic justice and racial equality.

This January, the coming U.S. war with Iraq, the economic recession that has thrown millions out of work and the government persecution of Arabs and Muslims make it all the more important that we remember what Dr. King fought for.

Growing up in California, I can remember the racial segregation. When my parents were looking to buy a house, there were three separate listings of homes for sale: one for whites, one for blacks, and another for ‘others.’ When I went swimming with an African American friend’s family, we drove for miles to a swimming pool in a large black community. And I remember having to walk out of a restaurant after waiting almost half an hour for someone to take our order, while whites who came in after us had already gotten their meals.

Later, when I went to school, I learned about how Dr. King led the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, which began in 1955. In Montgomery, white supremacy meant that blacks had to sit in the back of the bus, and if the seats were full, blacks had to give up their seat to white passengers boarding the bus. For more than a year, the African American community, sparked by Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat, did not ride a bus until the city agreed to desegregate the bus system.

I saw film clips of the brutal treatment of Civil Rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama. Fire hoses and vicious dogs were turned on the protesters and more than four thousand – mostly children – were arrested. And how could anyone forget the words of Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington? Facing a crowd of more than 250,000 people, Dr. King spoke of his dream of brotherhood. “Let freedom ring!” said Dr. King, ending his speech with the words of the old spiritual, “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

The struggle of the Civil Rights movement ended racial segregation and won blacks the right to vote, which had been denied them since the 1890’s. But the struggle of Dr. King did not end there. In 1964, police brutality triggered an insurrection by African Americans in Los Angeles. The poverty of the urban black ghetto in Watts and other cities in the North and Midwest led Dr. King to champion the cause of economic justice. In 1968, Dr. King was organizing a Poor People’s Campaign, saying, “We need an economic bill of rights. This would guarantee a job to all people who want to work and are able to work. It would also guarantee an income for all who are not able to work.”

Dr. King was also an early advocate of affirmative action. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. King and other civil rights leaders in 1957, created Operation Breadbasket to create jobs and business opportunities for the black community. “If a city has a 30% Negro population,” said Dr. King, “then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30% of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only menial jobs, as the case almost always happens to be.”

Last, but not least, Martin Luther King Jr. was an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. His principled support for nonviolence led him to say, “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.”

#UnitedStates #StPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #DrMartinLutherKingJr #MLK #CivilRightsMovement #SouthernChristianLeadershipConference #SCLC