Austin's Tour Stop went great!

The Lynching Then, Lynching Now Tour came to Austin, Texas on February 20th. The event featured Alan Bean from Friends of Justice, a civil rights organization active in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. University of Texas Associate Professor Edmund Gordon participated as well. Dr. Gordon has been active in getting a new Department for African and African Diaspora Studies at UT. We also had Sandra Reed, mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed. And the event was rounded out by a live call in from Stanley Howard, a member of the Death Row 10 in Illinois, who is still in prison, despite his death sentence having been commuted.

Our event began with a workshop in the late afternoon, featuring Alan Bean and Lily Hughes of the CEDP. Over 40 people attended this workshop, which laid out in depth the history of racism, lynching and the death penalty in the US, and talked about the role racism still plays in the (in)justice system today. This session had a good amount of time for question and answer from the audience.

The evening panel featured all the speakers mentioned above. The speakers were very moving, especially Stanley Howard, who mesmerized the crowd during his live phone call. Dr. Bean also has many incredible stories of injustice to share. For anyone looking for a tour speaker, consider Alan Bean, because the work he is doing speaks directly to this issue and his way of sharing these stories and giving a call to action is powerful and persuasive.

After the event, many people commented that it was really different to hear race discussed so in depth and tied so concretely to the justice system - as one attendee said "you never hear frank discussions of racism these days". Both Dr. Bean and Dr. Gordon commented on how President Obama has had to avoid overt discussion of racial problems, especially with the use of the death penalty and in the justice system. So folks really appreciated being able to talk at length about this issue.

Especially now, with the death penalty in Texas under constant fire, it is important for abolitionists to take on all aspects of what is wrong with our system and expose politicians, like our current governor Rick Perry, for their role in the continued shameful practice of death penalty, and in hiding the truth about who the justice system is targeting and why.

A great success in the "belly of the beast", and we thank Alan Bean and all the speakers for participating in this important event.

What students at Rowan University are saying about the Feb. 12th Tour stop!

Rowan College in New Jersey held a Tour stop on February 12th. Here's what students were saying about it:

"I felt that the 'Lynching Then, Lynching Now' program offered great insight into a very important, yet often ignored issue; the roots of the modern death penalty, and their connection to the racist institution of lynching.
This forum went a long way towards helping us as a society understand capital punishment in 21st century America." - Drew Howard, student, Rowan University.

“There is a contradiction in our society that killing is ok when the law does it. The Campaign to End the Death Penalty is putting ‘the eye for an eye’ mentality to an end. The event has awakened me to the reality that today’s capital punishment is no different then the Lynching between1882-1968.” - Ashley Fiore, Junior, Journalism, Rowan University .