Daniel Hunter - Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: an organizing guide

Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow

an organizing guide

Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: an organizing guide

ISBN #978-0-9885508-2-7, Published by the Veterans of Hope Project

2015 Daniel Hunter. All rights reserved.

The Veterans of Hope Project is a multifaceted educational initiative on religion, culture, and participatory democracy. We encourage a healing-centered approach to community-building that recognizes the interconnectedness of spirit, creativity, and citizenship. Our educational materials are designed to support reconciliation, nonviolence, and an appreciation for the value of indigenous and folk wisdom for contemporary times.

This booklet emerged from conversations among Daniel Hunter, Daryl Atkinson, Chris Moore-Backman, Michelle Alexander, and the late Dr. Vincent Harding. It was inspired by The New Jim Crow Study Guide and Call to Action (Denver, CO: Veterans of Hope 2013), available at www.NewJimCrowOrganizing.org.

Cover image used with permission, from the paperback edition of Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow (New York: The New Press, 2010, 2012). For more information about Michelle Alexander, www.NewJimCrow.com. For more information about The New Press, www.TheNewPress.com.

Back cover photo by Shadia Fayne Wood, www.projectsurvivalmedia.org. Drawings inside the book are by Joshua Kahn Russell, joshuakahnrussell.wordpress.com. Design of front cover created by author with help from Kaytee Riek, www.kayteeriek.com.

There are so many people in this struggle. All of them deserve more acknowledgment and praise for their commitment, efforts, and dedication. In that spirit, I thank everyone who is teaching us how to strive for justice, both those who let me use their stories in this book and those whose stories I didnt have the space to tell.

Im grateful to those who gave feedback and advice on drafts: Michelle Alexander, Clarissa Rogers, Hilary Beard, Dr. Phyllis Boanes, Pamela Haines, Nico Amador, Bhavana Nancherla, Lori Kenshaft, Eileen Flannegan, Bob and Carol Hunter, Lunden Abelson, and Judy Meikle. Thanks to my most excellent copy editor, Suzy Subways, and to Ryan Lietner for outreach. Thanks to everyone who helped with design, including designer Kaytee Riek, artist Joshua Kahn Russell, and photographer Shadia Fayne Wood; and for image permissions, The New Press. Thanks to Rebecca Subars West Chester class for research: Jess Gregan, Katie Lyons, Kyle Phillips, Sarah Stamm, Brianna Swartz, Julius Taliaferro, Mallory Spencer, Bruce Yockey, Courtney Mowen, and Julian Goss.

Thanks to Chris Moore-Backman for your eternal patiencethis never would have happened without you. And also to my advisors on this project: the insightful Daryl Atkinson and the incomparable late Dr. Vincent Harding.

Finally, thanks to everyone who supported this project via crowdsourcing:

M Abare, N Almassi, F Anderson, J Anderson, A Anemone, V Anthony, Anonymous, B Apostol, J Arceneaux, M Armstead, G Atwood, J Bacon, S Barnett, D Barry, T Baskin, E Basom, H Beard, A Berry, T Blake, H Box, N Boyce, J Bradley, M Bradshaw, M OBrien, J Broach, S Brody, G Browne, J Butler, A Carchedi, J Carroll, M Carter, Central Baptist Wayne, R Cecil, M Charest, S Chase, B Clare, J Cocks, J CordonHill, S Crossley, M Cristina Cuerda, J Culley, J Cummings, A Cytron-Walker, R Dance, N Daniel, L Davis, R Davis, K DeJong, N Devani, A William Diebolt, L Dodge, D Donovan, J Dowell, L Duncan, S Dunham, A Dunn, E DuVerlie, W Elling, A Erde, N Fior, C Fisher-Borne, E Flanagan, J Frank, R Frost, C Furman, M Fusoni, M Gagne, M Galvis, M Garmo, A Gehres, J Gelbspan, J Gingold, S Gish-Kraus, J Glaspie, C Blythe & R Goodman, L Gould, J Gowen, L Gray, S Joy Green, J Carl Gregg, S Griss, A Lisa Gross, R Hadley, P Haines, H Hammond, D Hartsough, M Hawthorn, Haymarket Peoples Fund, L Held, N Helfrich, I Hempseed, B Beckel & J Hesla, A Hill, C Hodelin, A Hoffman, P Holden, C Horwitz, D Hostetler, B Huebner, B & C Hunter, F Imberman, J Isard, P Ives, L Jackson, P James, R Janis, Jeanne-Marie, L Margot Johnson, L Johnson, M Johnson, T Johnson, P Jones, T Rashima Jordan, K Kamisugi, R Kean, A Kelly, L Kenschaft, B Kieft, A Kietzman, C Klug, E Koopman, C Kutz, S LaChappelle, I Lakey, landskov, A Lang, J Langdon, J Lapham, J Lashof, R LaVallee, M Lechner, G Leever, G Leondar-Wright, J Lewis, T Lindley, W Lofton, N Long, G Lopez, S Taylor & A Loving, R Luban, S Macbride, C MacDonald-Dennis, S Madeira, madeleih, V Madrigal, A Mahvash, H Malcomson, T Mammel, L Manders, Y Marom, J McDonough, J Mcleod, mdolliole, J Meikle, K Meister, A Mercurio, G Metzger, michfarq8212, E Miller, D Montgomery, R Moran, N Morice, M Muhammad, R Muhammad, J Murrian, K ONeill, C Nelson, P Nelson, K Nero, B Nestor, K Neuringer, G Newbold, J Newton, J Nikelsky, B OConnor, C Odelugo, D Olasky, S Olshevski, X Ortiz-Gonzalez, N Ostrand, M Overton, L Padilla, H Page, K Palmer, A Parra, M Pate, F Paynter, T Pease, P Pedemonti, C Peterson, T Peterson, A Pettus, K Parr Philipson, V Pigatt, M Pillischer, L Polaski, L Powell-Haney, D Preiser, J Priest, S Pritikin, rabbilynn, D Radin, R Revelle, J Rewa, rewel0013, K Ridd, M Ray & K Riek, R Rifkin, B Riley, J Riley, M Riley, C Robinson, D Banks Robinson, D Rooney, M Rozycki, rpneyman, A Ruga, E Sabel, E Sanders, M Sanderson, R Sandow, sandrar.hart, B Savage, P Scenck, S Schmidt, D Schroeder, K Schwab, S Schweik, S Sheridan, R Short, T Siftar, D Simmons, C Simpson, sincecombahee, F Skellie III, J Skinner, R Slajda, D Smith, E Smith, S Smith, B Solow, L Solyntjes, N Spann, B Spiers, C Springer-Lockhart, sschmidt, M Stafford, M Stein, S Stengel, C Stewart, K Stokes, K Sue, T & W Hjelt Sullivan, D Suzuki-Brobeck, N Szwergold, t4k.core, M Tahaie, G Tarver Jr, D & P Taylor, P Taylor, theajohnson, M Thompson, S James Thompson II, T Thompson, E Thorne, D Tilsen, A Trost, B Turner, A Varma, N Maxwell Vassilakis, E Vesely-Flad, A W, L Wagner, J Walker, M Walker, S Walton, S Welna, B West, K Wheeler, S Wiggins, B Willeford, C Williams, K Wilson, and N Wolfe & S Zunes.

Dedicated to the life and teachings of Dr. Vincent Harding, a friend and confidant of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who eldered generations of activists.

In the words of Maya Angelou:

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be

better. For they existed.

To the memory of him and all the other teachers, elders, poets, prophets, and griots who have come before us.

There is more activism in the United States today than we have seen since the Black Freedom and Justice campaigns that so deeply impacted our nation during the tumultuous twenty-year span of 1953 to 1973. US activism today expresses frustration and even rage over a broad spectrum of oppressive systems that abuse an enormous number of people. Most of these systems are intimately related to one another, though their convergence is not well understood or identified in public discourse.

The unsettling truth, however, is that too much of the activism today is for the sake of activism and does not move public awareness or public action in the needed direction. It is my contention that if activism is to move our nation toward a genuine experience of equality, justice, and the beloved community, we must deliberately employ the unimaginable power of nonviolent civil resistance. This is soul force (