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“Education Works, Prisons Don’t” was the call to action that attracted hundreds of concerned New Yorkers at a Harlem teach-in, sponsored by United New York Black Radical Congress, on October 27-28, 2000. The teach-in brought together students, parents, teachers, community activists, and leaders from politics, unions and religious institutions.
The event marked the highpoint of an extensive campaign launched by the Black Radical Congress throughout the city in 2000 on the theme “Education, Not Incarceration.” Groups endorsing the teach-in and sending representatives included: the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Prison Moratorium Project, Women for Racial and Economic Equality, the Center for Immigrant Families, the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, the New York Alliance of Black School Educators, the New Caucus of the Professional Staff Congress, the Correctional Association of New York, the Lower East Side Call for Justice, the Committee to Abolish Miseducation, the New York Metro Black Radical Congress, the City University of New York African American Network, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Youth Force.
On Friday night, October 27, three hundred people registered for the conference, and attended a “Town Hall Forum” on “Education and Public Policy,” held at the Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem. A powerful film produced and directed by Thurgood Marshall high school students was shown, depicting the widespread practices of racial profiling and harassment of youth by the New York Police Department. The film instructed young people how to protect themselves and to assert their legal rights when confronted or arrested by the police.
The “Town Hall Forum,” chaired by United New York BRC Chair Manning Marable, featured presentations by prominent African-American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, New York City Councilman Bill Perkins, New York State Assemblyman Edward C. Sullivan, education activist and BRC Metro member Sandra Rivers, and Adelaide Sanford, Regent of the New York State Board of Education. The public exchange focused on a broad range of issues, linking the underfunding of New York’s public schools by state government, to the massive expenditures for new prison construction. Public officials noted that virtually all of New York State’s 38 prisons constructed since 1982 are located in rural, all-white upstate districts, which not coincidentally are heavily Republican. Mandatory sentencing laws, especially those penalties mandated by the Rockefeller Drug Laws, have increased New York State’s prison population from 12,000 in 1970 to 74,000 in 2000.
On Saturday, another 180 participants registered to attend thirteen workshops that were coordinated by sponsoring organizations. United New York BRC youth activist Rima Vesely chaired the session on “Youth Criminalization: Getting Police Out of the Schools,” that explored ways of removing armed police from school buildings, and ending the stop-and-frisking of black and Latino youth. Educator and United New York BRC activist Maria Ramos led the workshop on “Special Education,” focusing on New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s cutbacks on special education and what can be done about them. Other workshop themes covered include: “The Prison Industrial Complex”; “Hip Hop and Youth Organizing”; “Parent Advocacy and Partnerships”; “The Criminal Justice System and Community-Based Organizing”; and “Public Education or Privatization: A Debate on ‘School Choice’.”
The final plenary on Saturday afternoon was devoted to the theme, “Building a Movement: Where to Go from Here.” Representatives from various workshops held throughout the day presented more than one hundred specific suggestions and proposals around three categories of action: government and public policy, community-based institutions, and political protest and mobilization.
The conference participants resolved to focus on four central objectives for action for 2001: to campaign to force the next president to sign an executive order outlawing racial profiling; to campaign to defeat New York City Mayor Giuliani’s efforts to privatize forty of the city’s worst schools; to participate in a broad coalition to overturn the repressive Rockefeller Drug Laws; and to fight for adequate funding for public schools and reversal of the policies that reduce public education budgets at the expense of prison construction. The conference pointed to the clear, unambiguous connections between racial profiling of black and Latino young people by the police and court system, and the racial tracking and underfunding of urban schools. “Privatization” in both schools and prisons was responsible for “racialization.”
Key presenters at the final plenary included New York State Senator David Patterson of Harlem, United New York BRC activist and poet Amina Baraka, educator/author Safiya Bandele of Medgar Evers College, Corretta McClendon of the Correctional Association of New York, State Senator Tom Duane, and Sheila Evans-Tranmun, the Assistant Commissioner of the New York State Board of Education. The closing speaker of the conference, United New York BRC leader Humberto Brown, presented a powerful analysis for radical social change, for addressing the problems of mass incarceration and the destruction of public schools.
The multiracial, BRC-led conference marks the first teach-in in recent years in New York City that brought together a broad spectrum of activists involved in education reform, anti-police brutality and criminal justice work. This successful first step will reinforce the progressive new movement in the city to demand “education, not incarceration.”
The event marked the highpoint of an extensive campaign launched by the Black Radical Congress throughout the city in 2000 on the theme “Education, Not Incarceration.” Groups endorsing the teach-in and sending representatives included: the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Prison Moratorium Project, Women for Racial and Economic Equality, the Center for Immigrant Families, the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, the New York Alliance of Black School Educators, the New Caucus of the Professional Staff Congress, the Correctional Association of New York, the Lower East Side Call for Justice, the Committee to Abolish Miseducation, the New York Metro Black Radical Congress, the City University of New York African American Network, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Youth Force.
On Friday night, October 27, three hundred people registered for the conference, and attended a “Town Hall Forum” on “Education and Public Policy,” held at the Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem. A powerful film produced and directed by Thurgood Marshall high school students was shown, depicting the widespread practices of racial profiling and harassment of youth by the New York Police Department. The film instructed young people how to protect themselves and to assert their legal rights when confronted or arrested by the police.
The “Town Hall Forum,” chaired by United New York BRC Chair Manning Marable, featured presentations by prominent African-American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, New York City Councilman Bill Perkins, New York State Assemblyman Edward C. Sullivan, education activist and BRC Metro member Sandra Rivers, and Adelaide Sanford, Regent of the New York State Board of Education. The public exchange focused on a broad range of issues, linking the underfunding of New York’s public schools by state government, to the massive expenditures for new prison construction. Public officials noted that virtually all of New York State’s 38 prisons constructed since 1982 are located in rural, all-white upstate districts, which not coincidentally are heavily Republican. Mandatory sentencing laws, especially those penalties mandated by the Rockefeller Drug Laws, have increased New York State’s prison population from 12,000 in 1970 to 74,000 in 2000.
On Saturday, another 180 participants registered to attend thirteen workshops that were coordinated by sponsoring organizations. United New York BRC youth activist Rima Vesely chaired the session on “Youth Criminalization: Getting Police Out of the Schools,” that explored ways of removing armed police from school buildings, and ending the stop-and-frisking of black and Latino youth. Educator and United New York BRC activist Maria Ramos led the workshop on “Special Education,” focusing on New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s cutbacks on special education and what can be done about them. Other workshop themes covered include: “The Prison Industrial Complex”; “Hip Hop and Youth Organizing”; “Parent Advocacy and Partnerships”; “The Criminal Justice System and Community-Based Organizing”; and “Public Education or Privatization: A Debate on ‘School Choice’.”
The final plenary on Saturday afternoon was devoted to the theme, “Building a Movement: Where to Go from Here.” Representatives from various workshops held throughout the day presented more than one hundred specific suggestions and proposals around three categories of action: government and public policy, community-based institutions, and political protest and mobilization.
The conference participants resolved to focus on four central objectives for action for 2001: to campaign to force the next president to sign an executive order outlawing racial profiling; to campaign to defeat New York City Mayor Giuliani’s efforts to privatize forty of the city’s worst schools; to participate in a broad coalition to overturn the repressive Rockefeller Drug Laws; and to fight for adequate funding for public schools and reversal of the policies that reduce public education budgets at the expense of prison construction. The conference pointed to the clear, unambiguous connections between racial profiling of black and Latino young people by the police and court system, and the racial tracking and underfunding of urban schools. “Privatization” in both schools and prisons was responsible for “racialization.”
Key presenters at the final plenary included New York State Senator David Patterson of Harlem, United New York BRC activist and poet Amina Baraka, educator/author Safiya Bandele of Medgar Evers College, Corretta McClendon of the Correctional Association of New York, State Senator Tom Duane, and Sheila Evans-Tranmun, the Assistant Commissioner of the New York State Board of Education. The closing speaker of the conference, United New York BRC leader Humberto Brown, presented a powerful analysis for radical social change, for addressing the problems of mass incarceration and the destruction of public schools.
The multiracial, BRC-led conference marks the first teach-in in recent years in New York City that brought together a broad spectrum of activists involved in education reform, anti-police brutality and criminal justice work. This successful first step will reinforce the progressive new movement in the city to demand “education, not incarceration.”