A National Speaking Tour of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Presenting the CEDP's National Speaking Tour for 2009 - 2010. Join this teach-in tour in cities around the country this fall and spring. This year's tour looks at the historic link between the death penalty and lynching in the United States. Hear from those who have been freed from death row, activists and scholars on the role of racism in our criminal justice system and why the death penalty and unjust sentencing need to be abolished.

For More Information

If you are interested in hosting a tour stop at your school or in your community, or if you have any questions please contact:

UPCOMING TOUR STOPS

Exciting events are in the works for this spring.

Highlights include:

San Jose, California - Tuesday, May 25th at 7PM at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. Speakers include Cephus Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant, who was murdered by the BART police in Oakland. Also featuring Jack Bryson, whose sons were with Oscar during the shooting, and Veronica Luna, whose uncle is on CA death row.

North Carolina. In conjunction with the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium— Two dates left:

NC A&T University (NC Agricultural and Technical State University), Greensboro - April 16 with Guilford County Public Defender David Clark and Rep. Alma Adams.

Campbell Law School, Raleigh - Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Spring 2010, co-sponsored by Juvenile Justice Program.

Texas. One date left:

University of North Texas, Denton - April 29th. With Alan Bean and Rodrick Reed.

Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey - April 16th. In conjunction with Rutgers Law Review 2010 Symposium: "Righting the Wronged: Causes, Effects and Remedies of Juvenile Wrongful Conviction". With Bryan Stevenson, Yusef Salaam and others.

Illinois. One date left:

Chicago - April 28th at Harold Washington Library Center. With Mark Clements, Marvin Reeves and Marlene Martin.

New York -

City College of New York - April 21.

John Jay College/Cuny - April 22

Saturday, December 12, 2009

CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY SPEAKING TOUR CIRCULAR

CEDP TOUR OFF TO A GREAT START!

The CEDP 2009-2010 national Tour, Lynching Then, Lynching Now: Roots of Racism and the Death Penalty in the US, is off to a great start, and shaping up to being a very exciting spring.

The Tour was designed to be a forum to delve into the injustices of the death penalty today and how inextricably race is bound up with it. But the Tour also aims to draw out the historical roots of capital punishment and its close ties to lynching in the US. Activists have much to learn from looking closely at the history of racism and how vigilante racist violence was used as a means to subjugate African-Americans through a reign of terror in the South. The Tour hopes to be a vehicle to turn opposition to death penalty into action based on the view that struggle will be more effective with a deeper understanding of what has come before.

To date, we’ve held stops at Cornell University, American University and Fordham University, featuring longtime civil rights activist Alan Bean from Texas’ Friends of Justice speaking on the case of Mississippi prisoner Curtis Flowers, Jena 6 and the Southern “injustice system.” Other speakers included Yusef Salaam, CEDP Board member and exoneree in the Central Park case, who spoke on the parallels between his case and that of Emmett Till and the Scottsboro Boys, and Lawrence Hayes, former death row prisoner and CEDP Board member, on the legacy of repression against the Black Panthers and those who fought against racism.

HOST YOUR OWN TOUR STOP

CEDP Chapters and other groups are strongly encouraged to host a Tour stop of their own. This year’s Tour is designed with a teach-in format in mind, where hosts are encouraged to hold workshops and discussions in conjunction with a panel or forum. The aim of the teach-in structure is to facilitate more in-depth discussion of the historical material and its relevance to racism, prisons and the death penalty today.

For questions or to set up an event, contact the Tour organizer, Lee Wengraf, at nyc@nodeathpenalty.org

SUGGESTED READINGS

And to help brainstorm and prepare for Tour events, including discussion topics and themes, following is a suggested reading list:

Bill Carrigan, The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916

Dan T. Carter, Scottsboro

Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

Jackie Goldsby, A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature

Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat, From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America

Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors and Other Writings; The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900

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