>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< THE VIEW FROM THE HILL - #4; October 31 2005 A Monthly E-mail Update Highlander Research and Education Center www.highlandercenter.org >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< CONTENTS 1. Pupils, Prisons and Priorities - Strategic Research Workshop Held at Highlander 2. Gulf Coast Environmental, Racial, Social & Economic Justice & Solidarity Tour 3. Washington, DC, Memorial Service for Rosa Parks 4. Highlander House Parties in San Francisco & Boston >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< 1. PUPILS, PRISONS AND PRIORITIES - STRATEGIC RESEARCH WORKSHOP HELD AT HIGHLANDER Twenty-one representatives from groups concerned about declining public education, the criminalization of youth, and the devastating growth of the prison population in the South gathered at Highlander on October 21-23. Highlander, the Data Center from Oakland, California, and Project South in Atlanta, Georgia, sponsored the event. Participating groups included Citizens for Police Review, Knoxville, TN; Communities United for Action, Power and Justice, Atlanta, GA; Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Greenville, SC; North Carolina Lambda Youth Network, Durham, NC; Power U Center for Social Change, Miami, FL; Women’s’ Project, Little Rock, AR; 21st Century Youth Movement, Tuskegee chapter, Tuskegee, AL; and Youth Innovation Movement Solutions, Tupelo, MS. The workshop was a follow-up to conversations over the past several years at the Young and the Restless Seeds of Fire youth leadership training camp. At the camp, young people have described feeling imprisoned in schools and talked about the high level of security in schools directed at students, how easily students can fall into the juvenile justice system, and how skewed the justice system is towards targeting people of color, especially African Americans. These feelings are borne out by national trends: the incarceration rate for both young people and adults has skyrocketed, and the current national prison population is over 2,000,000. Partly as a result, money that might go to schools is being used for a growing prison-industrial complex. The goal of the workshop was to deepen strategic research skills for groups working on education and criminal justice issues in the region. Participants shared information about the current situations in their communities. Project South discussed how we got to the current situation in the education and criminal justice systems. The Data Center shared campaign research skills, sources, and ideas. And Highlander related these issues both to the growing gap between the rich and poor and to decisions about how federal money is spent. In the coming weeks and months, we will be talking with the groups involved in the workshop about ways to follow up this event, to help local organizations around the region tackle these important issues. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< 2. GULF COAST ENVIRONMENTAL, RACIAL, SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE & SOLIDARITY TOUR Two members of the Highlander staff - Susan Williams, co- coordinator of our Education Team and coordinator of our library/resource center, and Tufara Waller Muhammad, our cultural organizer - will participate in the Gulf Coast Environmental, Racial, Social & Economic Justice & Solidarity Tour on November 2-5. The tour is being organized by a coalition of local and regional organizations in the Gulf Coast, including the Southwest Workers Union, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and Project South. Participants in the tour will meet with local organizations in Gulfport, Mississippi, and in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and will help with clean-up efforts in United Houma Nation, a Native Americam community of 3500 people in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. The tour will also include a strategy meeting with organizations from the Gulf Coast, which will help to inform Highlander's continued work to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For more information on the Gulf Coast Environmental, Racial, Social & Economic Justice & Solidarity Tour, see the Southwest Organizing Project blog at http://www.swop.net/2005/10/gulf-coast-environmental-racial-social.html. See our Web site, www.highlandercenter.org, for continued ways to support grassroots groups afected by Hurricane Katrina. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< 3. WASHINGTON, DC, MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR ROSA PARKS As we send this View from the Hill, we want to acknowledge today's memorial service in Washington, DC for Rosa Parks. Today's memorial is one of three services for Mrs. Parks, whose action in 1955 sparked the modern civil rights movements when she courageously refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Highlander's interim director Pam McMichael and our development associate and office manager Kristi Coleman are in Washington to represent Highlander at the service. They were unable to get in the Metropolitan AME Church due to the overflow crowd and joined hundreds of others who listened to the service over loudspeakers on DC streets or watched on C-SPAN in the building of the National Education Association. Mrs. Parks' relationship to Highlander was lifted up by two of the memorial speakers: Dr. Dorothy Height, a longtime friend of Mrs. Parks and president of the National Council of Negro Women, and Mr. Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine students who desegregated Central High School in 1957. Mrs. Parks first came to the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, for a school desegregation workshop in 1955 and was there again in March 1956, 100 days into the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She continued her relationship with Highlander over the years. The last memorial service for Mrs. Parks will be in Detroit on Wednesday. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< 4. HIGHLANDER HOUSE PARTIES IN SAN FRANCISCO & BOSTON Highlander friends and supporters gathered recently for fundraising house parties in San Francisco and Boston. Both events included music and conversation with Highlander staff about Highlander's history, current work and future plans. Suzanne Pharr was the featured speaker at the San Francisco Bay house party on October 16th and Congressman John Lewis was the featured speaker at the Boston house party on October 30th. Highlander deeply appreciates the work of the host committees for both parties and the generous support of the hosts and those who attended. Special thanks to Suzanne Pharr and Congressman Lewis. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>--<>--< To unsubscribe from this e-mail list, or to add someone new, send an e-mail to hrec@highlandercenter.org. Past issues of View from the Hill are available online at www.highlandercenter.org/n-view.asp. Highlander Research and Education Center 1959 Highlander Way New Market, TN 37820 Phone: (865)-933-3443 Fax: (865) 933-3424 www.highlandercenter.org