KEY COMPONENTS OF SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

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"For me, the most important lesson
[of the Freedom Movement] is that by respecting the fact that fellow activists could passionately disagree over strategy and tactics—yet remain allies—they strengthened SNCC and the Movement as a whole."
From Bruce Hartford's article in Urban Habitat.
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MY WEBSITE: educationanddemocracy.org

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Something to Ponder on election day!

Freedom is a Constant Struggle. The Southern Freedom Movement fought hard to eliminate obstacles to voting: literacy tests, poll taxes, threats of violence and death, grandfather clauses..........one result being the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Act.  Today a new obstacle: differential punishments and police harrassment.

America’s Millions of Disenfranchised, Largely Black Voters from Colorlines 
It’s Election Day, which means millions of voters are headed to the polls. But there’s a sizable number of people who aren’t permitted to cast ballots because they’ve been caught up in the criminal justice system. An estimated 5.3 million Americans have currently or permanently lost their right to vote because of felony convictions—.... At least four million of those people have completed their sentences or are on probation or parole, according to NPR.  Read More

The Shame of New York   By Bob Herbert NYT
Published: October 29, 2010
The whole notion of the rule of law, critical to a democracy, is sabotaged when the guardians of the law — in this case the officers of the New York City Police Department — are permitted to violate the law with impunity.  Read More

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