racism

Many of us have been concerned and following the case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who has been illegally detained by the U.S. government since 2003.

We recently received the following action alert and hope you will join us in spreading the word and speaking out to free Dr. Al-Arian.

As we speak, the US government is manipulating the justice system to keep the high-profile prisoner Dr. Sami Al-Arian imprisoned indefinitely.

Despite having never been convicted of any crime whatsoever, and despite being an upright citizen who dedicated his life to improving America, Dr. Al-Arian has been imprisoned since 2003 for exercising his First Amendment rights. Any day now, he may be indicted on criminal contempt, a charge that carries a minimum sentence of five years. Another Palestinian-American professor in a similar case was sentenced to eleven years for criminal contempt last fall.

My dear friend and brother Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Organizer and Research Associate at the Institute for Policy Studies, has written a saddening report on the state of African-American community and ultimately democracy in Post-King America. The report helps to situate the legacy of King in a concrete way within the prophetic tradition to call our nation into account.

Dr. Martin Luther King recognized that the next phase in the African American’s quest for civil rights and equality was one that would focus on the economic divide between the wealthiest Americans, the working class, and those in poverty. King’s analysis of economic inequality as the foundation of racial inequality remains as valid today as it was 40 years ago.

As we remember the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's death today, this message from ColorofChange.org serves to remind us that even as we live through these historic, politically-heady times -- there is still much work to be done.

Innocent. And in solitary for 35 years.

Take action to achieve justice for the Angola 3:

After a week of intense public pressure, officials at Angola prison moved Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox out of solitary confinement for the first time in 35 years.¹ But they're still locked up--for a crime everyone knows they didn't commit.

Together, we've started to turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities at Angola to keep Wallace and Woodfox in solitary confinement for challenging the violence and segregation at Angola.² We need to keep the pressure on to force federal and state authorities to intervene and release these innocent men. Will you join us?

http://colorofchange.org/a3/

This week, on April 1st, I ran a great conference at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, titled MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: THE MAN, THE MESSAGE, THE MOVEMENT. It was co-sponsored by the Memphis Theological Seminary, where I have taught for many years, and the University of Memphis's Department of Communication. The excellent event featured two keynote speeches: one was titled "I'm Happy to Be Here Tonight: King's Final Speech and the Rhetoric of Hope," delivered by Dr. Frank Thomas, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church; the other was "Remember King in Memphis" by Dr. Maxine Smith. What a privilege to help host this event in the city where King died forty years ago tomorrow.

Today I delivered a paper at another conference in Memphis on Dr. King's life and legacy. Given my close connection and commitment to the Fellowship of Reconciliation (I currently serve on FOR's National Council), and the fact that Dr. King was himself on FOR's Advisory Council at the time of his death four decades ago, I thought FOR members might appreciate this commentary.

Today, March 21, is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, while reading this week’s address on race in America offered by Senator Barack Obama again would be an appropriate remembrance for the day, the following message from the Secretary General of the United Nations also embeds the moment in larger preparations for a world conference in 2009 and our individual responsibilities each day.

By wearing green today, you can help make a stand against Islamophobia.

Last week, Mychal Bell, an African-American teenager in Jena, Louisiana, was released from jail on $45,000 bond. Bell was one of six black high school students who had been incarcerated in December 2006 and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy in the beating of a white student in December 2006. Bell, who is 16 years old, was to be tried as an adult, and faced 22 years in adult prison; the other five defendants faced another 53 years behind bars for their alleged roles in the beating.