JANUARY 17: SCHOOLS NOT JAILS ORGANIZERS WILL RETURN TO SITE, DESPITE ARRESTS

Organizers of today’s Schools Not Jails Occupation kickoff rally and action say that they have no plans to cancel the program of events planned to take place at the proposed site of the juvenile detention center in East Baltimore this week, despite arrests and an aggressive police presence earlier today. Tuesday’s program of events begins with breakfast at the site at 8AM, and ends with a 6PM dinner and a teach-in on Youth and the Prison Industrial Complex with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle at 7PM. All are invited to attend.

The Schools Not Jails Occupation, in collaboration with Occupy Baltimore and the Baltimore Algebra Project, is a five-day action designed to call into question the budgeting priorities of the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore by highlighting the unnecessary allocation of $100 million in state funds for the construction of a 180-bed youth detention facility–an amount that would cover the annual budget shortfall that threatens to close or privatize the Baltimore City Recreation Centers for 333 years.

Earlier on January 16, after a boisterous rally at the corner of Fallsway and Madison, in front of Central Booking, over 150 people marched to 600 E. Monument, where six organizers entered the enclosure and proceeded to erect a large wooden schoolhouse on the proposed site of the youth jail, and a Baltimore City high school teacher gave a lesson on Frederick Douglass. Earlier in the day, Wendell France, Commissioner of Pretrial Detention & Services at the Maryland Department of Public Safety, had told organizers that they would not be allowed onto the site of the proposed youth jail, stating safety concerns, but said that the State of Maryland’s jurisdiction ended there, and stated that he had no problem with protestors on the sidewalk outside of the site’s chain-link boundary. Baltimore City Police, however, did seem to have a problem with the Occupation’s use of the sidewalk, and brought dozens of police officers in full riot gear to create a barrier between activists and their military tent, erected on the sidewalk to provide shelter for those planning to remain at the site through the night. Police forced members of the press to leave the site, and then tore down the tent, which was taken away in a city sanitation truck. State Police then proceeded to tear down the schoolhouse that had been constructed inside the chain-link fence around the youth jail site.

Organizers say that, despite the six arrests and the loss of the tent, the first day of the action achieved their ultimate goal: calling attention to the planned construction of the youth jail, and demonstrating to the city and state governments that the residents of Baltimore City have different priorities for public spending and want to have a say in how public funds are dispersed. Organizers plan to spend the week discussing alternatives to the problems in Baltimore that the jail is intended to address, and bring proposals to the mayor’s participatory budget hearing at Cylburn Arboretum on January 21.

Video of the day’s events, as well as images, may be found at the Schools Not Jails website shortly: http://schoolsnotjails.wordpress.com | For specific photo requests, especially from the period when press were blocked from the site, please email schoolsnotjails@gmail.com.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact the Schools Not Jails Media Team: (410) 849-9626 | schoolsnotjails@gmail.com

###

Maryland Shaw

Thankfully, the “Ella Baker” tradition lives on in Baltimore through young women like Maryland Shaw.

It was in the Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP) that now 22-year-old, Maryland Shaw, got her start in local activism. While a sophomore in high school, she was drawn to BAP after being frustrated by dated and tattered textbooks in high school that she was not allowed to take home to study from. Initially believing that she could do nothing about her problem; she learned of a student-led advocacy group that rejected the notion that youth were powerless to positively impact their own conditions. She joined BAP and not soon after she was helping to organize a three-day strike against educational inequality in the state.

Since that time, Maryland has deepened and broadened her participation in educational activism. In addition to fighting for equal resources for city schools; she is among the leaders of the campaign to halt the construction of a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore. She has done it all – from organizing community meetings with Baltimore residents about the youth jail to directly confronting Governor O’Malley as he campainged for re-election in 2010.

Today, Shaw is a student at Morgan State University with plans to study Early Childhood Education. She serves as a mentor and volunteer at the Urban Youth Initiative Project (UYIP) – a program of the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement. She is committed to nurturing the next generation of youth activists. When asked about the state of youth activism in the city, Maryland observed, “the more I hear about how we need to look to the youth [for leadership] the less I see it.”

Maryland Shaw is a descendant of Ella Baker in more ways than one and in an activist arena that remains dominated by high-powered and often prideful male egos; Shaw is leaving her own mark on Baltimore City and beyond.

Habari Gani? Kujichagulia! which means Self Determination – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Self-Determination is such a beautiful principle which speaks to the freedom that all individuals and people-groups should be able to rightly exercise. Though not always using the term, I have been writing about “kujichagulia” on this site for a long time.

In early 2008, I was blessed to be a part of the Park Heights Community “Dry Out” campaign that sought to expel liquor stores and predatory businesses from the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. It’s beyond shameful that there are 4 liquor stores in that one block! It’s also telling that in this overwhelmingly Black community; all of those liquor stores are owned by non-Black people. Under the leadership of Derrick Compton and with the support of others like now-councilman Brandon Scott, Al Watson, and Pastor Kevin Brooks; we put weekly pressure on these establishments to let them know they were being monitored for infractions and targeted for eventual expulsion.

In November 2009, I critiqued the Emerging Christian Movement in the spirit of self-determination, for its exclusion of non-white voices as it presented theological dynamics and features as if they created them while all the while People of Color of other Faith traditions and denominations have been practicing different “emerging” principles for generations.

I wrote about “kujichagulia” back in August 2010 when I proclaimed that “Black People Should Control The Baltimore City Public School System” on the grounds that Afrikan youth make up about 98% of the student population and the city is somewhere around 65% Afrikan. This notwithstanding, Black folks are regularly begging and pleading to have substantive say in the education of their own youth.

Self-determination pushed me back in April 2011 when I talked about the general “whiteness” of the Urban Farming/Healthy Food Movement and the need for people of color to be at the lead of the food revolution just as we are in most cases the ones suffering under the brunt of America’s food deserts.

And of course, my involvement in the struggle against Governor O’Malley’s plan to build a new youth jail in East Baltimore has been fueled by my firm belief that the Black Community should decide what institutions we want or don’t want in our community just like White people and Jewish people decide what will or won’t come in their communities. If White people don’t want a business or even a church to come into their community; chances are it won’t come. If Jewish people don’t want a business to come in their community; chances are it doesn’t come. Why should it be any different for Afrikan people? We don’t want O’Malley’s multi-million dollar youth jail and many of us have committed ourselves to organize, agitate, and protest – even if it means physically impeding the path of construction trucks – until O’Malley bends to our wishes.

This, my friends, is self-determination and in different ways it’s happening all over the world.

I pray that the flames of “Kujichagulia” burn even brighter in the new year for the Global Afrikan Family. As Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. reminded us – “No one can ride your back unless its bent.” No more hunched-backness in the Black community! May we stand up straight like righteous women and men and commit to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves” without timidity or apology.

Ashe.

State Senator C. Anthony Muse Speaks With Baltimore Clergy

On the same day that Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was being formerly inaugurated into the office of Mayor of Baltimore, State Senator C. Anthony Muse met with Baltimore clergy at First Apostolic Faith Church to share his ideas related to a potential run for U.S. Senate.

The Baltimore-native and and Prince George’s County Pastor currently is serving his second term as State Senator representing Maryland’s 26th Legislative District. 

In a room of nearly two dozen Baltimore-area clergy, Muse shared his concerns related to challenges in the country and specifically in the Black Community. He lamented the lackluster response to Black unemployment by those representing Maryland on Capitol Hill, and pledged that his priority as a U.S. Senator would center on job creation. In familiar clergy cadence, he also spoke about education, housing issues, and his vote against the redistricting plan which, he said, negatively impacts Maryland’s Black community resulting in the potential loss of millions of dollars.

It wasn’t lost on the clergy in attendance that the 42 million African Americans in this country don’t have one Black Senator to point to on Capitol Hill. In fact, as of 2011, only six African Americans have ever served as a U.S. Senator – with the first one, Rev. Hiram Revels, having a Baltimore connection as well. The historic undertones were and are clear.

That notwithstanding, defeating the incumbent in this race, Senator Ben Cardin would be a monumental feat for any challenger. Cardin, who has been in Maryland politics since 1967, has a long political track-record, firm name recognition, and the solidified support of the Jewish community of which he is a member. 

Thanks to his congressional staffer, Jerome Stephens, who is also a Baltimore minister, Cardin has relationships with Baltimore-area Black clergy as well – providing some with material and financial support for their various ministry outreach endeavors.  A reality that may keep some Baltimore clergy in Cardin’s camp.

The hinge on which this election may swing just may center on the question of whether the Black community will get solidly behind Muse as the Jewish community is solidly behind Cardin.  

Muse won’t likely win the fundraising contest, but if Blacks unite behind him, he has a real chance of becoming the next U.S. Senator of the United States – essentially representing not just Maryland’s Black Community, but being a voice at the table for Blacks across the Nation.

Perhaps this is why President Obama offered a very early endorsement of Senator Cardin.

In the 2006 U.S. Senate election, Cardin defeated Lt. Governor Michael Steele in the general election by 10 percentage points, but lost by wide margins in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County – Maryland’s most populous Black districts that are overwhelmingly democrat. Perhaps the more ominous numbers from the 2006 campaign are that Cardin only garnered 257,000 votes in the democratic primary against Kweisi Mfume. Since that time, upwards of 300,000 new Black voters have come on the rolls in Maryland – most in 2008 to support then-candidate Obama for president. These same voters are more likely to return to the polls in the presidential election of 2012 to vote on a ballot that in addition to Obama, may also have C. Anthony Muse’s name on it.

What does all of this mean? Well, it means that a strong Black candidate with solidified and enthusiastic support from the Black community has a real chance of defeating Senator Ben Cardin and making history for the Black community once again on April 3, 2012 – the date of the Primary Election.

The Black Community will not only have the opportunity to send a Black Man back to the White House as president, but to send a Black Man to the Senate too.

This should be quite an interesting race.

“I think I have some sense of what neighborhoods in Baltimore are like and what they need.” That was, in part, M.J. Brodie’s response to my critique of his agency’s impact on Baltimore’s Black Community. He knows what our neighborhoods are like and he knows what we need. Really?

In an open-air, public meeting with him organized by Another BDC Is Possible (an offshoot of Occupy Baltimore) I, along with others challenged him on the lack of participation, lack of transparency, and lack of commitment to economic justice within the Baltimore Development Corporation. I told Mr. Brodie that his agency operates from a “just trust us to do what’s best for you” mentality, however, that unearned trusts that the Black Community has given the BDC and other Baltimore agencies has produced some strange fruit.

I used that line in my words to Brodie – “strange fruit” – and I almost wished I hadn’t now because he seemed more concerned about proving to me that he knew where the reference came from rather than addressing the central concern of my challenge to him in that the majority demographic of Baltimore – the Black Community – has in essence an extremely limited “official” role in helping to give voice to the vision and future of the city.

I spoke at the mic that night feeling a certain responsibility to the silent workers of Baltimore who clean the skyscrapers downtown while smiling at “Boss” and enduring dehumanizing dynamics because of the economic dependence on less than suitable wages. I spoke with responsibility to the folks who are bused into the Inner Harbor to make sure tables are clean, doors are opened, food is warm, and a pleasurable experience is created for the monied, and privileged “upper economic class” that are said to be so key to the advancement of this Black City. I spoke with responsibility for the Black Youth whose very presence at the Inner Harbor is a protest against a city that creates enjoyable spaces for tourists while closing schools and threatening to shutter recreational centers. I spoke to Brodie with responsibility to 80 acres of a Black Community in East Baltimore that was summarily moved out of their homes in a gentrification project to make way for “other people” who are treated as if they are the promise of a “better” East Baltimore – and those grandmothers, grandfathers, and Black Families that they replaced were a curse that caused the dilapidation of the infrastructure around the behemoth that is Johns Hopkins.

Just trust us, he says. “I know what’s best for you.”

That night I left the polished skyscrapers of the Inner Harbor which stand like monuments to White privilege and power in this Black town and went back to my community where there are about four liquor stores and a dingy Murry’s that serves as the community’s food depot. “Tobacco and Groceries” reads the banner announcing the latest business coming to the block. Vacant buildings, liquor, check cashing, and stale food are the staples of the area of the community where I live which is just south of Belvedere Square – a posh, boutique, and restaurant area partly financed by the Baltimore Development Corporation and definitely designed with the local higher income, White community in mind. To see it and then look at the businesses and buildings in my immediate neighborhood, one would think you’re looking at two different cities – not two pictures of the very same street!

With the BDC’s support, some get high-end food, dining, furnishing, and events and others get….this:

STRANGE FRUIT INDEED

Also read the Open Letter below:

OPEN LETTER TO THE BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

We, the undersigned authors and endorsers of this letter, feel that it is time to have a little talk.

The Baltimore Development Corporation should, as a publicly-funded organization entrusted with the public mission of promoting local economic development, be accountable to this city’s residents. Instead, we find that the BDC uses technicalities and legal loopholes to hide from democratic control and accountability behind its technical status as a private non-profit, making deals ostensibly in the name of Baltimore—and more often than not involving Baltimore’s tax dollars—without Baltimore getting any real, effective say in what those deals are. This is an unacceptable and untenable situation.

More specifically, there are three core problems in the operations of the BDC that must be urgently addressed:

1) The BDC’s lack of transparency

Despite a landmark 2006 ruling which established that the BDC is legally obligated to comply with the Maryland Open Meetings Act, no real transparency in the BDC’s operations has been established. Exemptions and omissions have kept the BDC’s operations squarely hidden from public scrutiny. If you are going to be funded with public money, and use public money to advance a development agenda, the public has a right to know what it is you are doing and how.

2) The BDC’s lack of commitment to economic human rights

For decades, the Baltimore Development Corporation and its predecessors have focused on redeveloping Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and central business district, on the assumption that economic well-being and prosperity would trickle down to the city’s residents through the jobs new projects in these areas would create. What we’ve seen, increasingly, is a Downtown where labor standards are next to nonexistent, and where developers and employers are never held to account on failing to live up to their promises. The BDC needs to insure that all city-supported development results in good jobs with living wages and dignity, through binding agreements with “clawback” provisions that take back subsidies when these benefits don’t materialize.

3) The BDC’s lack of vision and popular participation

There is no meaningful participation of any Baltimore community in the operations of the BDC, except for the seat at the table reserved for the well-connected elite business community. We need an economic development agency that works for us, and with us, letting us determine the priorities to be pursued and the strategies to be followed. In an era of extraordinary financial crisis which has shattered economic assumptions and revealed the practical and moral bankruptcy of the development status quo, the need to reinvent and reconstruct the way local economic development works is of paramount importance. We need a BDC that works for a better Baltimore, and not just a better Inner Harbor; a BDC that supports green jobs and sustainable infrastructure, a BDC that operates to democratize wealth in Baltimore’s local economy rather than subsidizing the profits of the 1% and the multinational corporate sector. In order for this to happen, Baltimore’s neighborhoods, unions, and community groups need a seat at the table and a voice in the development process.

We thereby call upon the Baltimore Development Corporation to account for their conduct and their shortcomings in the areas above, and to work with the residents of the city in whose interest they claim to operate to address these pressing problems. Because so many of these problems have the BDC’s lack of transparency at their root, we we are calling upon officials of the BDC to meet with us in public, outside their offices at 36 South Charles Street, on Monday, November 7th, at 5PM, where some sunlight can hopefully be cast upon these matters. If the BDC refuses to meet, we will meet without them at the same time and place to collectively discuss what further actions their refusal merits.

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR SIGNATURE TO THE 400+ OTHER SIGNATURES

Mr. Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Mr. Marshall “Eddie” Conway is a true servant of his community. Imprisoned for more than four decades for the crime of murdering a Baltimore City Police Officer – a crime for which he maintains his innocence – Mr. Conway has not allowed the prison cell to suppress his spirit and will to organize his community.

The former Baltimore-based, Black Panther Party Leader, has been a stabilizing and healing force in Maryland prisons. Mentoring young prisoners, co-creating violence prevention dramatic presentations, and speaking to the world through his writings – telling his story of growing up in Baltimore so that others might be helped.

I am so thankful that members of my church and I have connected with Friend of a Friend Mentoring Program – an effort that Mr. Conway cofounded that focuses on conflict resolution, communication, and coping skills inside three of Maryland’s correctional institutions.

On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, there will be a parole board hearing for Mr. Conway. Supporters are asking that all people of Faith and Conscience would consider faxing a letter to the Board requesting that Mr. Conway be granted parole. He has been a tremendous blessing to so many individuals and families while behind prison bars; there’s no telling the positive impact he would have on the community as a physically free man. Please consider editing the letter below and given the deadline PLEASE PRINT OUT AND FAX THE LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER TODAY: 410-764-4355

Please comment below to let me know that you’ve faxed the letter if you feel led to do so. You’ll be joining more than 200 others who have already extended themselves in support of Mr. Conway. Thank you.

Honorable Members of the Maryland Parole Board
6776 Reisterstown Road
Suite 307
Baltimore, Maryland 21215

RE: Marshall Eddie Conway, # 116469

Dear Honorable Parole Board Members,

Support for the release of Marshall Eddie Conway has been previously and persistently expressed by thousands of Maryland tax payers and community citizens throughout the nation and abroad. This petition respectfully reiterates the sentiments of those who support the parole of Marshall Eddie Conway.

Inmate Conway, whose parole is scheduled for November 1, 2011, has been incarcerated in the Maryland state penal system for over four decades. Throughout that period, inmate Conway has utilized and continues to utilize his time to resolve conflict, build peace, and improve life outcomes for fellow prisoners and at-risk youth. The information below highlights ways in which Marshall Eddie Conway has been of invaluable service to the prison and Maryland community.

• Founded Friend of a Friend (2007), a peace building program that has trained 200 plus inmates per year to be mentors and peacemakers

• Collaborated with WombWorks Productions to produce “The Birth of Peace”, a play about finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts between street organizations in poor communities

• Worked to secure a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help improve the literacy skills of Maryland inmates

• Created a counseling program for youth at risk of imprisonment that operated for 12 consecutive years

While incarcerated, Mr. Conway has exhibited extraordinary character and personal commitment to peace building and positively impacting society. Maryland residents, including those representing the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland General Assembly support Mr. Conway’s release and re-integration into the Maryland community. In light of these factors, I respectfully ask this Honorable board to grant parole. Marshall Eddie Conway has proved himself a model inmate and will undoubtedly prove a model citizen.

Respectfully submitted,

[Your name]

SOURCE: David Shankbone

If all goes as planned. Today – October, 4, 2011 – will be a day that is remembered and perhaps even recorded in the “People’s History of Baltimore City.”

For the past couple of years a committed group of activists have been challenging Maryland state plans to build a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore – in a community that is already saturated with prisons and jails. While initial activism around the issue was met with strong resistance from political and agency leaders; some of them are beginning to become more vocal opponents of the youth jail citing stats that reveal that crime among youth in Baltimore is decreasing (following a national trend related to crime in general) and fiscal restraints are forcing political power brokers to consider other options.

Last year, this month, community leaders and grassroots activists hosted Youth Justice Sunday which brought a crowd of a few hundred to the neighborhood and site of where the construction of the youth jail is planned in East Baltimore. Today, youth leaders are joined by nonprofit professionals and their allies to once again march and raise awareness about the community’s continued disagreement with this youth jail project – demanding instead that dedicated operating and capital monies be redirected to schools, recreation centers, jobs, and other critical services that residents desire.

Today also marks the start of #OccupyBaltimore – an outgrowth of the #OccupyWallStreet effort that’s been going on for two weeks now in New York. The New York effort – which is a logistically impressive and passionate protest – has gained much attention in people-owned media and communication media, but just recently began grabbing the attention of corporation-owned media after NY police officers pepper-sprayed female protesters. (Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the #OccupyWallstreet camp knew that crying White females on television in America gets the national TV cameras there quick!)  The #OccupyWallStreet narrative continued to develop with what protestors call the “Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

200 people show up for inaugural meeting of #OccupyBaltimore

#OccupyBaltimore, which was started by the actions of those inspired by the NY-action, organized rapidly – largely on social networking sites and google. Remarkably, approximately 200 people attended the first meeting of the group (Sunday at 9PM!), more than 400 people have joined the Google group, and nearly 1,000 people have said on Facebook that they will join the group as they will begin “occupying” (that word has heavy negative baggage, but I get it.) downtown Baltimore at the corner of Pratt and Light Street – in the heart of Baltimore’s corporate and tourist district. Interestingly enough, the Baltimore police have already begun “monitoring” and likely infiltrating #OccupyBaltimore according to the Baltimore Sun:

“Baltimore police were monitoring social media and news reports for updates on the Inner Harbor protest, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.”

Stay tuned for up to the minute details regarding Baltimore’s Day of Protest. We’ll have pictures, video, and livestream of protestors and reactions.

Click this link to read their full letter of response [link opens pdf file]

Photo by Rich Dennison/The Daily Record

That’s the question I would ask Donald Fry (pictured), head of the influential Greater Baltimore Committee and Governor-appointed Chair of the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission.

The Baltimore Business Journal reported last week that the 7 member commission voted to “ease” [read: ignore] state requirements which would call for 25% of the casino construction project to go to MBE (minority-business enterprise) or WBE (women-business enterprise) certified firms. Likewise, successful licensees won’t have to bother with the Baltimore City requirement that calls for 37% minority-owned or woman-owned business participation either.

Apparently, it’s just that easy to make a state and city requirement – “optional.”

The interim-Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, didn’t seem to know that the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission “eased” the MBE/WBE requirement on the city slots construction project when she was asked about it on the Marc Steiner Show on the evening of Thursday, August 18th – the day after the controversial vote. However, she did say that she takes the MBE/WBE goals very seriously and that many bidding firms are disqualified if their proposals don’t meet them.

Despite her proclaimed convictions related to including minorities and women in state contracts, it’s doubtful that she’ll challenge the ruling of the slots commission given that she’s in the midst of a contentious election and the head of the commission was chosen by her political ally, Governor Martin O’Malley.

She’ll take one for the team on this one.

However, The Baltimore City branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) isn’t laying down so quietly. In the following open letter, Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, President of the Baltimore Branch of the SCLC, challenged Mr. Fry to explain why the state MBE/WBE requirements were removed from the city casino construction project:

Rev. Cortly “C.D.” Witherspoon, Sr.
President,
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Baltimore City Chapter