Bay Area tour stop a great success!

The Bay Area tour stop of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty national speaking tour, "Lynching Then, Lynching Now," was a great success! We were honored to have Lawrence Hayes join us from New York. We kicked off his trip to the Bay Area by having Jack Bryson and Lawrence on the KPFA Flashpoints show (you can listen here: http://kpfa.org/archive/id/59610 - the last 20 minutes of the show). They also stopped by a meeting of All of Us Or None, discussing the "gang injunctions" and met up with great activists, including Sister Beatrice.

On Wednesday, March 24th, Lawrence spoke at two classes at Merritt College, where the Black Panthers started, and was able to have an engaging discussion with the students and with chair of African-American studies, Dr. Siri Brown. That evening, our main tour stop event, drew 50 people at Laney College, another community college in Oakland. The speakers were: Lawrence Hayes, Barbara Becnel, Kevin Cooper (calling in live, from death row), Jack Bryson and Jabari Shaw of the Laney College Black Student Union, moderated by Michelle Simon of the CEDP. The speakers used the theme of the tour to analyze and discuss the history of racism and of fighting racism, and racism today/struggles against racism, the death penalty and the criminal (in)justice system.

Lawrence Hayes spoke about the history of lynching in this country, and the audience heard his peronal and powerful story.
Barbara Becnel spoke about what it is to be "on the front line" of this struggle, how coming to the event and learning about these issues is the first step to being on the front line. Jack Bryson picked up on this theme and talked about how CEDP joined with him in his fight for justice for Oscar Grant so how could he not be on the front line against the death penalty and for freedom for Kevin Cooper. Kevin called in from San Quentin, and made connections between his struggle, the fight against education cuts, and many other issues. The audience got to ask great questions to Kevin. One audience member, after the event came to a close, asked us to deliver a message to Kevin: she said to tell him "he is beautiful, innocent and must be freed." Jabari Shaw gave a passionate speech about racism, fighting racism and bringing our social justice movements togethers. We were also fortunate to have a recorded message from Mumia Abu Jamal. If you are interested in having a copy of the recorded message to play at a tour stop event, contact Crystal at crystal@nodeathpenalty.org.

The CEDP worked with the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee, the Laney International Socialist Organization, the Laney Black Student Union, and the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu Jamal. We met a lot of great activists, community members, and students. We hope to build on the success of the tour and continue our fights for justice for Kevin Cooper and the other issues we are working on today.

Report from Champaign-Urbana Tour Stop.

A multi-racial standing-room only crowd of 70 people packed a classroom in Gregory Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Feb. 24 to hear from Marvin Reeves and Mark Clements, two victims of Chicago police frame-ups who were both released last summer after nearly 50 combined years behind bars for crimes they did not commit. Marvin spoke of being snatched away from his several children in the middle of the night more than 21 years ago based on testimony from a jailhouse snitch, while Mark spoke of his severe beating and subsequent confession at the hands of Chicago police, which at age 16 led to a life without parole sentence. “Speaking here to you all is like therapy,” Marvin said. “When I see all of you here, I know there are a lot of people out there who care. When you’re in prison, you forget that.”

Brian Dolinar, an organizer from Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice, and Marlene Martin, with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, rounded out the panel. Brian spoke of the Champaign police’s murder of unarmed 15-year-old Kiwane Carrington, the struggle to win justice for Kiwane’s family, and the campaign to get charges dropped against Kiwane’s friend, Jeshaun Manning, who was at the scene. As Brian said, “There’s the lynching of Kiwane Carrington. But now there’s the legal lynching of Jeshaun Manning that we’re fighting to stop too.”

Marlene spoke of the racism at the root of all of these cases of injustice. “We may no longer hang people from trees. But now, those who do the lynching have traded in white robes for black ones”, she said.

During the discussion, many people asked about what they could do to fight for justice. Activists circulated petitions to drop the charges against Jeshaun Manning, and many people stayed well after the meeting was over to talk to the panelists and network with each other. The Champaign-Urbana tour stop was sponsored by Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice, the International Socialist Organization and the Prairie Greens.

Contributed by Julien Ball at University of Illinois.

Howard Zinn and Sandra Reed

Sandra Reed is the mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed, a case the CEDP in Austin and nationally has worked on for years. Sandra recently spoke at the Lynching Then, Lynching Now Tour stop in Austin, Texas about how racism played a part in the wrongful conviction of her son.

Sandra Reed sits on the CEDP's national board and has attended our annual convention in Chicago for many years, always as a featured speaker. The way she conveys her family's story with such power and emotion never fails to affect people profoundly.

This year Sandra had the pleasure of sharing the stage with renowned left historian Howard Zinn on the Saturday night of the CEDP convention. Before the big evening event, Sandra and a few other speakers went to dinner with Howard. Sandra sat next to Howard and they spoke of her son's case, and the justice system in general.

When she asked him to sign her copy of the New Abolitionist, he obliged, but told her he'd like to send her a book he wrote that he thought she would enjoy. Being a pretty modest person, Sandra couldn't believe he would do that for her, but she gave him her address right there at dinner.

Just one week after she returned from Chicago, Sandra received a package from Howard. In it was a slim volume he wrote called Uncommon Sense - a collection of writings and speeches over the decades that reveal his philosophy about history, politics, law, culture, activism and the fight for a better world.

The book Sandra received was inscribed:

For Sandra Reed, and Rodney too
People of Courage –-
Howard Zinn, Nov. 2009

Sandra was so surprised and touched by this thoughtful act! She reciprocated with a Christmas card in December, and was so happy that she had because just a few months later, she heard of Howard's death. Her son Rodney wrote from prison to tell her of Howard's passing.

Though the news brought her to tears, Sandra said that she was so grateful to have met Howard when she did, to share in dinner, to share the speakers platform and to share her story and have him remember her and her son's fight.

As far as Rodney's case goes, racism played a huge role in his conviction. You can read a little about his case here:

http://nodeathpenalty.org/content/factsheets.php?category=cedp&factsheet_id=10

Also check out auschron.com and search Rodney Reed for extensive coverage of this case over the years.

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 .

Report from Tour stop at American University.

On Nov. 11th the "Lynching Then, Lynching Now" tour stopped at American University. Guest speakers were Mike Stark, Lawrence Hayes, and Yusef Salaam. All three gave speakers gave accounts of their experiences with death row and urged the attendees to take action to help abolish prohibition. At the end of the workshop they engaged students in a brief question-and-answer session. The event was very successful with a large turnout. Many students stayed after it ended to speak individually with the speakers.

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