Join ONE DC at our Emancipation Day celebration!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

1 pm - 5 pm

614 S St. NW (parking lot) - Shaw/Howard University metro stop, Howard University exit

FREE!

This year's Emancipation Day will feature discussions and activities highlighting:

- the history of Emancipation Day

- the new Jim Crow and the issues facing returning citizens

- alternative solutions--Ella Baker and the history of African-American-owned co-ops and local co-op movement building

- our focus on wellness

There will also be food and fun! Please join us!

On Monday, March 26th at 6:30 p.m., there will be a worker rights and jobs campaign meeting at ONE DC's office, 614 S Street NW.

Saturday, April 14th is Emancipation Day. Save the date; details will be available soon on ONE DC's website and in the April newsletter.

Saturday, April 21st at 1.pm. will mark the Barry Farm Outreach Day; details will be available soon.

On May 19, 2012, the AAWRC will present an oratory contest in which teenage girls can enter to win a 1st place prize of $500. The 2nd place prize is $300, and the 3rd place prize is $100.

Contestants will be judged on content, organization and analysis, vocal delivery, physical delivery, and overall effective communication.

All teenage girls in the DC Metropolitan area are eligible to apply. There will be two divisions: 13-15 years and 16-19 years.

Deadline for to apply as a contestant is May 5, 2012.

The contest will be held at the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science (MS)² on Howard University's Campus (405 Howard Place, NW).

Coaches are available for a limited time. For more information and applications, please contact the African American Women's Resource Center at 202-450-5327 or 202-215-6147 or e-mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . There is more information on the website at www.aawrc.org.

Boston's City Life's Bank Tenant Association has been meeting and protesting for almost 5 years. Together the people who attend the weekly meetings have won de facto principal reduction for more than 100 families. These successes have led banking insiders to describe Boston as the "ground zero" of foreclosure resistance

ONE DC members are invited to attend a dinner and discussion, in Baltimore, where the grassroots organizers will share their experiences and will then engage in Q & A. Please register for the event athttp://action.goodjobsbetterbaltimore.org and click on the "events" tab at the top of the page. You can also call 443-449-2048 for more information. There is no costto attend the dinner and meeting.

What: "Lessons from Boston: Foreclosure Resistance" 
When: Friday, March 30, 2012, at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Govans Boundary United Methodist Church at 5210 York Road, Baltimore, MD, 21212
Hosted by: Ella Baker Organizing Institute, Good Jobs Better Baltimore, Occupy Our Homes: Baltimore, Public Justice Center, and United Workers.

On February 20, 2012, more than 100 people rallied outside of the D.C. jail to protest against mass incarceration, to oppose the human rights abuses endured by prisoners and returning citizens, and to stand in solidarity with prisoners in D.C. and across the country.  The rally was one of 16 actions across the country, all a part of the National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners. In a country with only five percent of the world's population but more than twenty percent of the world's prison population, the nationwide actions brought much needed attention to the exploding prison population, its connection to the privatization of prisons, and the utter failure and destructive nature of the U.S. criminal justice system.  One common theme connected the hundreds of people who rallied across the country: a commitment to dismantling an unjust and coercive system that has torn apart families and individuals for far too long.

In D.C., the rally brought together a wide range of people fed up with mass incarceration's effect on D.C. residents and families.  Because the rally coincided with visiting hours at the jail, several family members of people currently incarcerated joined the action to express their personal frustrations and experiences with the criminal justice-or rather, injustice-system.  Protestors spoke out against new visiting procedures at the jail: the Department of Corrections plans to replace one inhumane visitation procedure -- visits with loved ones through glass partitions -- with an even more alienating one.  Soon, prisoners will have no human contact with loved ones but rather will have teleconferenced visits through video screens.

People also spoke out against other forms of dehumanization that D.C. prisoners endure: overcrowding in the jail; increased use of solitary confinement; and abuse and maltreatment at the hands of privately owned and operated prisons. Formerly incarcerated people and returning citizens expressed their frustrations with the insurmountable barriers people face if and when they return from prison.  Basic human needs and wants -- such as housing, employment, and education -- are inaccessible (often legally) to the more than 60,000 formerly incarcerated people living in D.C.  The rally shed light on these and other injustices perpetuated under the guise of "law and order."  Ultimately, the day brought together people invested in confronting and challenging the many fronts of mass incarceration and continued a dialogue that is gaining momentum across the country.

Keon Shim from LiUNA participated in the ONE DC worker rights and jobs campaign in February.  He encouraged ONE DC members to participate in the CityCenter rally and protest against Clark Construction and the company's poor record on hiring local residents. Reverend N'ya Finley spoke on behalf of ONE DC and its commitment to living wage jobs and workplace democracy in DC.

Peter Tucker also reported the following on the on the campaign meeting, on theFightBack.org:

"We live in this city. Many of us are born in this city. It's only fair that we have an opportunity to work and feed our families," Pastor Patrick Walker, President of the Missionary Baptist Ministers' Conference of Washington, D.C., told a gathering at Greater New Hope Baptist Church on Thursday.

Pastor Walker's remarks came just minutes before he and other clergy members led a one-block march to the site of the $950 million CityCenter project in downtown D.C. at 10th and H Streets, NW. Protesters, most of them native Washingtonians, shut down the entrances to the 10-acre construction site, chanting, "Clark Construction's got to go!"