The Reform School From Hell's Surviving "White House Boys" and Ending Poverty in the Delta

Saturday, December 14, 2013
Featuring:

Antoinette Harrell

Longtime Activist for Human Rights 

and Genealogist

The Dozier School's "White House"
(Click the Photo for More Info)

Antoinette will be discussed the gross injustices committed against the 'White House Boys' and other juvenile inmates at Florida's notorious Dozier School for Boys in Marianna which was shut down in 2011. (Click links to learn more.)

Over a century of abuse and hundreds of suspicious deaths with many remains still being unearthed occurred while it was in operation. 

She also talked about her ongoing efforts to end poverty in the Mississippi delta region. A tireless defender of the disenfranchised, she has spent countless hours researching instances of modern-day slavery and peonage across the U.S., and helped in the rescue and rehabilitation of at least one such family held captive.  

Antoinette hosts a radio program, Nuturing Our Roots, where she invites guests to speak about the tedious and difficult work of tracing the genealogy of African Americans, and also a cable access program on the same topic: African Roots:

You can access recordings of previous shows HERE.

  

African Roots Television - 

Host Antoinette Harrell and Genealogist Bernice Bennett

How Do We Save Public Housing? Public Works Now!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Featuring:

 Jay Arena

Jay Arena is a long time community and labor activists in New Orleans and New York, and the author of the recently released book, 

Driven From New Orleans: How Nonprofits Betray Public Housing and Promote Privatization

"Eight years after Hurricane Katrina the assault on New Orleans working-class communities continues—only now it is Barrack Obama, rather than George Bush, leading the charge. The demolition of the city’s last traditional public housing development is part of an accelerating privatization agenda across the country against not only public housing, but all public services serving the 99%. Only by getting out of our “silos” and uniting our movements to demand a mass, direct-government-employment public works program can we ever hope to not only save the remaining public services we have, but win the massive expansion of public housing and other jobs and services we so desperately need."

Community Organizing to End Poverty

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Featuring:

Marcel Rivera 

and 

Flozell Daniels, Jr.
President and CEO of Foundation for Louisiana

The Coast, A Lawsuit, and Other Things

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Featuring:

Mark S. Davis

Senior Research Fellow and Director, Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

For the last fourteen years Mark has served as executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. While there he has helped shape programs and policies at the state and federal level to improve the stewardship of the wetlands and waters of coastal Louisiana, one of the world's greatest coastal and estuarine resources.  

Immigration Reform: What's at Stake - How You Can Help

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Featuring: 

Sue Weishar

Migration Specialist, Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University

Sue Weishar will be speaking about the upcoming legislation for reforming U.S. immigration policies. There are many ways we can help move this legislation forward, and she will be discussing these and other topics related to the issue. Please come out and learn more about this monumental legislative movement and its ramifications for all of us.

Sue previously spent fourteen years as Director of Immigration and Refugee Services with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (1991-2005) and earlier worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa and as a teacher in Guatemala. Most recently, in the years since Katrina, she served as project manager for the Louisiana Refugee Services Collaborative to implement a new state-wide refugee services collaborative, administrator for the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA), Gulf Coast Coordinator for the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits, and Director of Development for UNITY of Greater New Orleans.

Also, Sue and programs which she directed have been honored by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (for Alternatives to Detention), the National Crime Prevention Council (for the Asian Youth Services Program), and the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (for the Immigrant Domestic Violence Services Program).

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Roundtable Discussion

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee since May 1983. 

Do Guns Kill People or Do People Use Guns to Kill People?

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Featuring:

Carlos Thomas 

Louisiana Organizing Field Director,

Mayors Against Illegal Guns

and 

Michael King
Louisiana Organizing Field Director,
Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a national, bipartisan coalition of mayors working to make America’s communities safer by keeping illegal guns out of dangerous hands. Co-founded in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the coalition has grown from a committed group of 15 members to more than 950 mayors from 45 states, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, from major cities and small towns around the country.  

"New Orleans has a higher rate of gun violence, more so than most places in the country, and we would love to support the effort to curb gun violence here,”  “What we’re doing would help in that effort.”

Includes Louisiana Coalition members:

		Mayor Berline B. Sonnier Basile, LA
		Mayor Melvin 'Kip' Holden Baton Rouge, LA
		Mayor Ron Roberts DeRidder, LA
		Mayor Robert Grafton Elizabeth, LA
		Mayor Provino Mosca Harahan, LA
		Mayor Katherine T. Freeman Logansport, LA
		Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu New Orleans, LA
		Mayor Rodney A. Grogan Patterson, LA
		Mayor Cedric B. Glover Shreveport, LA
		Mayor Oda Rockett Spearsville, LA
		Mayor Cecil LaVergne Sunset, LA

10am – Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries* and

Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking 

11am to Noon– Speaker Presentation and Discussion

*$3.00 suggested donation

First Unitarian Universalist Church 

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans, 

at the corner of Jefferson Ave. 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

For more information, contact us: admin@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee since May 1983.

Please Join Us in a Special GMCB Membership Committee Breakfast

SATURDAY JUNE 8, 2013

11:00am to 12:00pm

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

Coffee, juice and light breakfast pastries offered

Enough is Enough! Historic Statewide March on Baton Rouge

SATURDAY May 11, 2013 

Anti-racist Organizing in New Orleans: The Work of the GNO Organizers Roundtable

SATURDAY April 13, 2013 

Featuring:

Monique Harden

and

Rosana Cruz

Monique Harden is the co-convener of the Greater New Orleans Organizers Roundtable with Dr. Kimberley Richards, an attorney and co-director of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights. You can watch her in this interview: Democracy Now!

Rosana Cruz is a founding member of the Greater New Orleans Organizers Roundtable and the associate director of VOTE, Voice of The Ex-offender. 

The following description is from this article: 

Since its inception in 2007, The Greater New Orleans Organizers Roundtable has become a crucial resource for New Orleans’ social justice community. Through an intentional process of trust and community building, The monthly meetings of the Roundtable have become a support and information network for a broad spectrum of organizations working on a variety of social justice issues in Greater New Orleans and throughout the Gulf South, ensuring that member organizations are informed about members’ campaigns and initiatives so that participants can share skills, information, and resources and support one another in their struggles. The Organizers Roundtable actively contributes to creating a vibrant local and regional movement that prioritizes the voices of oppressed people and nurtures alliances across race, class, age, nationality, and gender. In this workshop, members of the Roundtable will share our strategies, struggles, and successes with the hope of supporting the development of Roundtables in new communities, and a national network of Organizers Roundtables that can support one another’s work. 

10am – Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

and 

Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

11am to Noon– Speaker Presentation and Discussion 

*$3.00 suggested donation

Location:

First Floor Classroom

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

For more information, contact us:  admin@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, 

the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of 

the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee since May 1983.