“Martin Luther King Jr’s life’s work was the elevation, honoring, and defense of Black Lives. His tools included non-violent civil disobedience and direct action. Dr. King was part of a larger movement of women, and men, queer, and straight, young and old. This movement was built on a bold vision that was radical, principled, and uncompromising. The freedom fighters who believed in this vision were called impractical, rash, irrational, and naive. Their tactics were controversial. Some elders distanced themselves from what was then a new movement for change. Some of the older generation joined in. Our movement draws a direct line from the legacy of Dr. King.
Unfortunately, Dr. King’s legacy has been clouded by efforts to soften, sanitize, and commercialize it. Impulses to remove Dr. King from the movement that elevated him must end. We resist efforts to reduce a long history marred with the blood of countless women and men into iconic images of men in suits behind pulpits.
From here on, MLK weekend will be known as a time of national resistance to injustice.
This MLK weekend we will walk in the legacy of Dr. King and the movement that raised him. We will #ReclaimMLK.”
– Ferguson Action
Three years ago, the #ReclaimMLK Week of Action was the first public event Black Lives Matter DC put on. Every year the week is phenomenal, touching hundreds of people and highlighting issues unique to Black DC communities. Kicking off each new year with a sense of purpose, focus, and a solid group of folks ready for strategic, principled, and organized resistance is amazing. This year will be no different and we hope to see you all there!
In addition to coming out to enjoy the events (listed below and attached to this email), we are looking for volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering please fill out this form as soon as possible. We would love your help collecting more items for the Silent Auction on Friday 1/19. If you or anyone you know wants to donate, please have them fill out this form.
Lastly, critically important events like these cost money to put on. We are an all volunteer grassroots chapter and need your help to cover the costs associated with this week. We have been able to secure many in-kind and other donations through hard work and relationships we have built. However, we still need your support to cover what remains. Please donate generously here today and encourage your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to do the same! Your help is greatly appreciated.
MLK Holiday DC Theme: Where do we go from here? Chaos or community?
One can make the argument that it began on July 23, 2017, when community activist Schyla Pondexter-Moore and her two teen-aged daughters attempted to get a meal at a community food table in Ward 8 set up by the nonprofit Quest2Change. Instead of getting a meal, they got an earful about how a tied t-shirt and a leggings justified harassment by the men in the community, including the men who were serving the food. Schyla and her daughters left when the harassers, seven grown men, threatened them with violence.
The incident led to a Speakout Against Street Harassment sponsored by the newly formed group Reclaiming Our Bodies DC. I went with my camera, expecting to get a few good soundbites, and to put together a 3-5 minute video about street harassment. But the footage gathered that day has required a little more attention. The result is the 30-minute documentary Triggered: Street Harassment and Rape Culture in D.C.’s Ward 8.
The first screening will be followed by a panel discussion about street harassment. Details are below.
It was clear at the Speakout that Reclaiming Our Bodies DC had touched on an issue that was about far more than one incident. While most of the media focuses on sexual harassment among the political elites and Hollywood insiders, the rest of us are dealing with it in the streets. Grassroots DC invites you to join the discussion.
Black Lives Matter activists worked for two years to pass the NEAR Act and get it fully funded. Now they’re working to see that it’s implemented correctly. The video above, edited by Malik Thompson, is of a march and rally from April 2017.
The NEAR (Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results) Act establishes a set of long-term programs and policies to address public safety in DC specifically through a public health lens. These programs and policies have been empirically proven to reduce shootings and violence in cities around the US.
In its fullest form, the NEAR Act would begin to de-emphasize the use of policing and force as the primary tactic for ensuring neighborhood safety in DC. It would protect vulnerable and minority (namely Black and Latino) residents in high-crime areas of our city from further harm. It would support individuals involved in potentially violent situations instead of turning to incarceration or violence to resolve the issue at hand. The policy would thus pave the way for the long-overdue transformation of these vulnerable populations and neighborhoods towards a deeper culture of safety, support, and opportunity.
WHY WE NEED YOU NOW:
After passing the DC Council unanimously in 2016, and being fully-funded in 2017, the NEAR Act is now in its next phase: implementation. Despite being fully-funded, most of the provisions in the NEAR Act have not been implemented. As such, the NEAR Act remains largely unfulfilled as promised in 2016.
In order for the NEAR Act to reach its full potential, it is going to require us as DC residents to make sure our elected officials fully and faithfully implement all of the comprehensive approaches in the NEAR Act. To do so, we want to create a corps of “NEAR Act Ambassadors” to show up to DC Council hearings, community events, ANC meetings, and candidate fundraisers and campaign events. In doing so, we have an opportunity to hold DC Council to their word and to begin the process of protecting the most vulnerable neighborhoods in our city from further violence with a better approach.
We would like to invite you to take part in a training that will equip you with the knowledge and skills to hold our DC elected officials to their word of fully implementing the NEAR Act, to move away from the failed approach of policing and incarceration, and to make DC an example for a better way to prevent and reduce violence while empowering and uplifting all of its residents.
THE TRAININGS:
The Stop Police Terror Project will be running a number of trainings in November for each Ward to provide interested individuals the skills and knowledge they need to be NEAR Act Ambassadors, to let our elected officials know that the NEAR Act is still alive in our minds as a priority for our city. Through these trainings, you will gain the knowledge and skills to mobilize your local neighborhoods/networks to show up to these events prepared to pressure our elected officials towards full implementation of the NEAR Act.
NEAR Act Ambassador Training Wednesday, November 8, 2017 We Act Radio Station 1918 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE
We encourage you to attend the event for your Ward if possible, as there will be some Ward-specific information covered. BUT, everyone is welcome at any of the trainings, so please come to the one that works best for you even if it isn’t your home Ward. If you don’t know what Ward you live in, you can find out here: https://planning.dc.gov/page/wards-district-columbia.
Please share these events with your networks, and let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at a training, and to working with you to ensure the promise of the NEAR Act becomes reality.
“Each year officially since 1979 we have used the month of August to focus on the oppressive treatment of our brothers and sisters disappeared inside the state-run gulags and concentration camps America calls prisons. It is during this time that we concentrate our efforts to free our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, and all other captive family and friends who have been held in isolation for decade after decade beyond their original sentence. Many of these individuals are held in the sensory deprivation and mind control units called Security Housing Units (S.H.U. Program), without even the most basic of human rights.” – Shaka At-Thinnin Black August Organizing Committee from “THE ROOTS OF BLACK AUGUST”
If you haven’t made it to any events yet this month, here’s your opportunity to make it to one final event.
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