Please help the Dorothy Cotton Institute produce a feature-length documentary

https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/move-when-the-spirit-says-move

We at the Dorothy Cotton Institute are excited to partner with Photosynthesis Productions (PSP), an Ithaca-based film company, to produce a documentary that will be a tribute to the life and ongoing legacy of Dr. Dorothy Foreman Cotton, a civil rights icon of the Southern Freedom Movement.

Dorothy Cotton served for eight years as Education Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and was the only woman on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Executive Staff. The centerpiece of her leadership was the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), a popular-education intensive that moved thousands of people from a mindset of “victim” to that of fully-engaged “citizen.” The CEP equipped grassroots activists throughout the southern United States with a grounding in their constitutional rights and how to use the principles of non-violent direct action. In a brutal context where racial segregation, hatred and the threat of terrorism were daily realities, CEP participants went on to risk their lives to register voters, organize communities, demonstrations, strikes and boycotts, run for office and ultimately overturn Jim Crow laws. The CEP is a model for popular education and movement building that has empowered freedom struggles across the globe.

This film will focus not only on Dorothy Cotton’s role with the CEP, but will also highlight several other unsung s/heroes of the movement whose names and contributions the public should know. Dorothy Cotton’s work on non-violence, the power of freedom songs and taking action did not end in the ’60s. The film will include interviews with her colleagues and friends, archival footage of her talks and workshops, and the impact of her remarkable life.

We hope to have this project finished by spring of 2020 and that it will inspire people to vote in the 2020 federal election. Please give generously to this wonderful effort!

SCHOLARS AND VETERANS OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS AND IN DEFENSE OF ANGELA DAVIS.

On the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of national observance, over 360 scholars of the Civil Rights and Black Freedom Movements, and veterans of these historic struggles, along with educators and human rights advocates, issue a strong statement in support of Palestinian human rights, and in defense of our colleague and sister, Angela Y. Davis, who was publicly dishonored three weeks ago by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute when it abruptly reversed its decision to recognize her with its annual award because of her stand on this issue.

This statement was the initiative of Scholars for Social Justice, a new national network of progressive scholar-activists, led by scholars of color. A contingent of the group will travel to Birmingham, Alabama on February 16^th to participate in an alternative ceremony to honor Angela Y. Davis organized by local activists and officials in the city.

 To learn more please visit AngelaDavisPalestineSolidarity.com.

Open Letter to the Leadership of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
in Support of Dr. Angela Y. Davis

As the new Poor People’s Campaign is gathering momentum and organizing across the country, locally and regionally, people are grounding themselves in understanding what, on April 4, 1967, MLK Jr. called the three evils of racism, poverty and militarism in his extraordinary and groundbreaking speech at Riverside Church in NYC,  Beyond Vietnam–A Time to Break the Silence in which he took a courageous moral stand against the war in Vietnam,

Dr. King began to explore a new kind of revolution, a vision of people at the grassroots/community level creating new values, relationships, and structures as the foundation for a new society and combining the struggle against systemic racism with a struggle against poverty and militarism.

“We have left the realm of constitutional rights and we are entering the area of human rights.” …. “The Constitution assured the right to vote, but there is no such assurance of the rights to adequate housing, or the right to an adequate income … It is morally right to insist that every person have a decent house, and adequate education and enough money to provide basic necessities for one’s family.”

In 1968 the Poor People’s Campaign set up a multiracial, multi-ethnic Resurrection City on the Washington Mall  and demanded an economic bill of rights.

Today the new Poor People’s Campaign is bringing together Americans who have a lot more in common than we are often led to believe about each other. Building coalitions and solidarity is not easy. As we remember the tragedy of his assassination fifty years ago, we can also look deeply at the legacy of Dr. King’s remarkable role in the Freedom Movement, the power of non-violent direct action, and his ability to see the interlocking web of all forms of discrimination, violence, oppression, and war. To these we add the fundamental need for a healthy planet and an end to environmental degradation. We can look at the good news of the massive amount of effective organizing happening all over the country now to end the many forms of interpersonal, cultural and state-sponsored violence, and the reverse the daily dismantling of the basic public protections of people’s civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights. Something powerful is happening here.

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

On Sunday, October 22, 2017, Ujamaa Residential College and the Cornell University Black Alumni Association will hold a recognition program to honor the achievements and legacy of Dr James Turner and Janice Turner.

This program will begin at 10:00 am in the Ujamaa Main Lounge.

Your help to publicize this program is greatly appreciated.

Ujamaa Residential College – Living at Cornell – Cornell University

Ujamaa Residential College, Ithaca, NY 14850

The Midstate Council for Occupational Safety and Health held a 2-day training of trainers in Ithaca: Teens Lead @ Work

Led by Kirby Edmonds and Laura Branca, eight local teens have been trained to lead important workshops for young employees

The Midstate COSH trainers will train fellow teenagers and youth in these areas:

Introduction to Workplace Rights Under OSHA
Sexual Harassment
Workplace Violence
Health & Safety Hazards
Solutions at Work

If you are interested in having a teen-led workshop (usually 2-3 hours long) on these issues, please contact Antonio Triana <r10triana@gmail.com> or Midstate COSH <midstatecosh@gmail.com>

On March 13, the Dorothy Cotton Institute presented an interactive half-day training workshop on understanding the human rights framework, for students from two high schools–Lehman Alternative Community School, and New Roots Charter School.  The half-day workshop was hosted by LACS in their terrific theater space. DCI Senior Fellows Kirby Edmonds and Laura Branca designed and led the training.

A highly committed team of educators who are champions for equity and inclusion in their schools worked together to organize, find a time and space, and encourage their students to attend.

Many of the youth who attended the workshop are already involved working for justice and positive change in their schools and in their lives. The purpose of this workshop was to encourage them to use their understanding of human rights for creative self-expression, scholarship, and positive action to end discrimination and respect human dignity. The DCI is invited some youth to design a panel at The History Center about their work for social justice, date TBD.

Human Rights are Universal, which means that they belong to all people, everywhere. Yet it’s surprising how many people do not know very much about array of rights and responsibilities that our nation and hundreds of other nation states across the globe have made a commitment to protect and uphold.

The Right to Know Our Rights: The Declaration of Human Rights Education and Training says that first and foremost is our right to know our rights, and that all people, everywhere, are entitled to human rights education.  The Dorothy Cotton Institute is very pleased to offer young people the opportunity to examine their experience through the lens of human rights and responsibilities.

If you are interested in future human rights workshops for young people, educators or activists, please contact Kirby Edmonds at tfckirby@aol.com, or 607-277-3401.

Links to the American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center:

When encountering
law enforcement questioning

If your rights are violated at
a demonstration or protest

If Immigration Agents (ICE)
are at your door

National Immigration Law Center

Announcing Human Rights Educators USA–Official Launch

Ithaca, New York (December 1, 2012) – Human Rights Educators USA (HRE USA), a newly established network, is officially open for membership as of International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012. Inspired by the 2011 UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, which emphasizes the importance of human rights to every child’s education, HRE USA joins the global movement to use research-based methods to build a culture of respect for human rights though education.

Human Rights Education (HRE) is a lifelong process of teaching and learning that helps individuals develop the knowledge, skills, and values to fully exercise and protect the human rights of themselves and others; to fulfill their responsibilities in the context of universal human rights principles; and to achieve justice and peace in their communities and the world. The Human Rights Educators USA network facilitates its members’ collaboration and supports their efforts to:

• integrate HRE into formal and non-formal educational settings, such as schools, universities, and organizations working with youth;
• foster education that promotes respect for every child’s dignity, provides opportunities for meaningful participation, and upholds freedom from discrimination and all forms of violence;
• advocate for the inclusion of HRE in national and state education policies, standards, curricula, and pedagogy;
• provide pre-service and in-service teacher training programs and HRE resources;
• contribute to global research and scholarship on HRE; and
• empower educators and learners to enjoy and exercise their rights and to respect and uphold the rights of others.

Through its website, hreusa.net, the network offers educators, activists, scholars, and organizations working with youth a wealth of information, curriculum resources, and current research. The network also provides members with opportunities for direct engagement through its working groups on topics of interest such as policy and advocacy, higher education, after-school and community-based programs, K-12 curriculum, and early childhood education.

For more information, please contact:

Felisa Tibbitts, Co-chair                                          Sarah Herder, Co-chair

Phone                                                                                    612-746-4691

Email                                                                          sherder@advrights.org

November 21, 2012