Southern Justice Rising Initiative participates in strategic convening in New Orleans  

Last week, our Southern Justice Rising Initiative was in New Orleans at a strategic convening with brilliant Black and Indigenous organizers and their partners, who are fighting petrochemical companies in Louisiana. 

The convening included site visits to “Cancer Alley,” where we represent several groups in fierce battles for their lives against powerful industry. We visited the United Houma Nation, an Indigenous Nation that loses a football field sized piece of land every 100 minutes due to the climate crisis. We also visited the massive refinery in the town of Norco, (named after the New Orleans Refining Company), also in Louisiana.

These discussions with partners inspire us to double down on our efforts. These site visits help reground us in what we’re fighting against and what we are fighting for.

Photo in front of the refinery in Norco, La. Left to right: our Executive Director Vince Warren; Oceana R. Gilliam; Rep. Justin J. Pearson; our client Jo Banner of The Descendants Project; Roishetta Ozane of The Vessel Project of Louisiana; and Justin Solet, True Transition and member of the United Houma Nation.

Marking Nakba Day and the ongoing Nakba, in solidarity with Palestinians 

Last week, we issued a statement in solidarity with Palestinians on Nakba Day:

May 15 marks Nakba Day. 76 years ago, Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians resulted in dozens of massacres, over 15,000 Palestinians killed, and the forcible displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. 

As a result of Israel’s settler-colonial takeover of historic Palestine, 531 Palestinian villages were destroyed and 85 percent of Palestinians became refugees or internally-displaced people, whose descendants are still barred from returning to their homes and land. Many refugees ended up in Gaza, where today over 80 percent of the population are descended from those displaced. 

Right now, we are seeking to stop the genocide in Gaza, currently the most visible and urgent articulation of the Nakba’s legacy. Our case against Biden, Blinken, and Austin for failure to prevent and complicity in genocide will be argued in the Court of Appeals in San Francisco on June 10, 2024. 

Read the full statement on our website. For more information on the scope of our work, visit our Palestine solidarity issue page.

Legal advocacy orgs write to campus administrations regarding pro-Palestine student activism 

Last week, a coalition of 15 social justice legal advocacy organizations wrote to campus administrations about the needed responses to campus activism in support of Palestinian lives. The letter, sent to hundreds of campus administrations across the United States, demands meaningful engagement of student activism in ways that center free speech and academic freedom. This is critical as students nationwide demand an end to genocide and other state and institutional violence against Palestinians. 

The letter denounces responses to campus activism for Palestinian freedom that are discriminatory, repressive, or punitive. The letter recommends a number of actions to make campus learning environments vibrant, rigorous, non-discriminatory, and inclusive. 

The signatory organizations commit to continue to support and defend students leading the U.S. movement for Palestinian freedom.  

Read the full letter online.

We joined in National Day of Action to End Solitary Confinement 

Last week, we joined the Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce (FAST) for a National Day of Action to End Solitary Confinement. Participants spent the day in virtual meetings with more than twenty Senators' and Representatives' offices advocating for the End Solitary Confinement Act. 

Our Senior Staff Attorney CJ Sandley facilitated meetings with the offices of Representative Raúl Grijalva and Senator Martin Heinrich. During these meetings, directly impacted constituents and other advocates spoke about the urgency of ending solitary confinement. Day of Action participants also joined a panel discussion co-sponsored by FAST about solitary confinement in immigration detention. 

We will continue to work with FAST and the many directly impacted leaders in the movement to end solitary confinement.

LISTEN: Jessica Vosburgh on podcast, “Incarcerated workers in Alabama file lawsuit to end involuntary servitude” 

Our Senior Staff Attorney Jessica Vosburgh is featured on the Black Agenda Report podcast discussing the lawsuit aiming to abolish involuntary servitude in Alabama’s prisons. This lawsuit was brought by six incarcerated people against Governor Kay Ivey and Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm. 

After a successful labor strike by incarcerated workers in the Fall of 2022, voters in Alabama approved a change to the state constitution that expanded the ban on slavery and involuntary servitude to include people in prison. With this lawsuit, the six plaintiffs seek enforcement of the state constitutional provision.

Throughout the interview, Jessica also discusses many systemic horrors of the Alabama prisons. A notorious prison system, it is the most overcrowded in the country, operating at over 168 percent capacity. In addition, while Black people make up 26 percent of the state population, they account for 53 percent of the prison population. Jessica is part of our Southern Regional Office. 

Listen to the full podcast on the Black Agenda Report website.

WATCH: “POWER” streaming on Netflix 

The new film POWER is now streaming on Netflix. Directed by Yance Ford, POWER looks at the history and evolution of policing in the United States. From the film’s description:

“POWER traces the accumulation of money, the consolidation of political power, and the nearly unrestricted bipartisan support that has created the institution of policing as we know it. The film offers a visceral and immersive journey to demonstrate how we’ve arrived at this moment in history, from the slave patrols of the 1700’s and the first publicly funded police departments of the 1800’s to the uprisings of the 1960’s and 2020’s.”

Our Legal Director Baher Azmy is featured in the film, which is a production of Multitude Films, a longtime partner of ours.

If you have a Netflix account, you can watch the film online now.