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Biden signs voting rights order on 56th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”

[caption id="attachment_1780" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Two Minute Warning (1965) by Spider Martin. National Archives (CC BY-NC 2.0)[/caption] Sunday was the 56th anniversary of the first Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, which is indelibly associated with the late Georgia Representative John Lewis. The date is better known as "Bloody Sunday" for the violent attack on marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by Alabama State Troopers and a white mob recruited by Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark. Lewis, who was then an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was beaten so badly that he suffered a skull fracture. Scenes from...

Schools

DESE data shows New Bedford Schools over-disciplining children of color

We know that in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts neither the schools nor the police are collecting adequate data on school-based offenses. This is not to single-out New Bedford. It reflects a state-wide, if not a national, lack of interest in tracking at-risk youth. Many types of data describing the process of a child moving through the juvenile justice system — from schools, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), police, district attorneys, courts, probation, the Department of Youth Services, federal DOE and DOJ mandated data — must be analyzed in order to answer two critical questions about School Resource...

Schools

A Week of Forums on Opting Out of MCAS

Education advocates, including the New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools (NBCSOS), have scheduled a week of forums on opting out of the MCAS test. Sunday, March 14th at 1:00 PM Tuesday, March 16th at 7:00 PM Wednesday, March 17th at 6:00 PM (en español) While COVID-19 has disrupted education and students need social and emotional support as never before, schools are still fixated on test prep. Register here These forums are for parents and guardians across Massachusetts to learn how to opt out student from MCAS this year and to learn more about this problematic examination and high-stakes testing...

COVID

Vaccine Equity Now!

[caption id="attachment_1755" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] COVID-19 vaccination (2020) by U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC by 2.0 [/caption] The Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition — a newly formed coalition of 11 civil rights, immigrant justice, and public health organizations — is sounding the alarm to call attention to the dramatic racial inequities in the vaccine rollout in Massachusetts and to advocate for real solutions. Now, we need your help! We will need a tidal wave of support to convince Governor Baker and his administration to change course and put equity at the center of the roll-out. Please help us reach 10,000 signatures in...

Schools

Citizens for Public Schools calls on Legislators to cancel MCAS testing

[caption id="attachment_1741" align="alignleft" width="2048"] Testing Times Ahead by Pete (2009) in the Public Domain[/caption] On February 17th Citizens for Public Schools published the following letter to Massachusetts legislators calling for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education in order to cancel this year’s MCAS tests. Dear Senators and Representatives, In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on our schools and students, we, the undersigned groups representing parents, educators, students and advocates for education justice, call on Massachusetts officials to seek and obtain a testing waiver from the U.S. Department of Education and cancel this year’s MCAS...

Legislation

Ask Your Legislators to Help Lift Kids Out of Deep Poverty

Please click here to ask your legislators to co-sponsor An Act to Lift Kids Out of Deep Poverty (HD 1158 / SD 430), the legislation filed by Rep. Decker and Sen. DiDomenico to raise cash assistance grants by 20% per year until they reach 50% of the federal poverty level -- currently $915 per month for a family of 3 -- and then increase grants each year to keep up with inflation. Even with the 10% increase implemented in January of this year, cash assistance grants are still far too low to meet families' basic needs. The maximum TAFDC...

Support the Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda

Please support the Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda Please endorse the Agenda and if you are a member of an organization, ask your leadership to endorse the Agenda as well. The Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda consists of five bills supporting human rights, honoring culture and history, preserving heritage, and expanding education for Native Americans. An Act Establishing An Indigenous Peoples Day Fact Sheet House Bill: HD.2422 Senate Bill: HD.664 An Act to Protect Native American Heritage Fact Sheet House Bill: HD.1662 Senate Bill: SD.1887 An Act prohibiting the use of Native American mascots by public schools in the Commonwealth Fact Sheet...

My Country ‘Tis of Thee

by W.E.B. DuBois Of course you have faced the dilemma: it is announced, they all smirk and rise. If they are ultra, they remove their hats and look ecstatic; then they look at you. What shall you do? Noblesse oblige; you cannot be boorish, or ungracious; and too, after all it is your country and you do love its ideals if not all of its realities. Now, then, I have thought of a way out: Arise, gracefully remove your hat, and tilt your head. Then sing as follows, powerfully and with deep unction. They’ll hardly note the little changes and...

NAACP

NAACP sues Trump, Giuliani, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for violating the 1871 KKK Act

Today, NAACP filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson against Donald J. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers for their role in inciting a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election. Read more about the lawsuit here. The violent attack on the Capitol almost cost us our democracy, and there must be consequences. Trump needs to be held accountable for deliberately inciting and colluding with white supremacists to stage a coup. Watch the video here. In the months leading up to the...

COVID

Vaccine Equity Now!

For over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts and across the nation has been characterized by dramatic racial inequities across cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Now, with vaccines finally available, White residents are receiving the vast majority of the state’s vaccine doses. As of last week, White residents had received 12 times more doses than Black residents and 16 times more doses than Latinx residents. On February 17th a coalition of Civil Rights, Immigrant Justice, and Public Health Leaders launched the Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition, #VaccineEquityNow, on February 17 at a 1:30 online press conference at which they issued five...