Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN)

SARN Seeks Intern in Columbus, GA
The Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN) seeks a person willing to learn community organizing in the Columbus GA area. The internship runs from July 1-December 31, 2012. The ideal applicant will be available to work at least 30 hours per month. Compensation will be $300 a month plus expenses. Cover letter and resume must be mailed to SARN, PO Box 6582, Columbus GA 31917 by June 1. Please do not call or email. All applicants will receive a response.

SARN Celebrates One Year of Community Organizing in Columbus GA
On Thursday, April 26 at 6pm, the Southern Anti-Racism Network celebrated one year of community organizing in Columbus GA. The event was be held at the historic Liberty Theatre, 821 Eighth Avenue.

Cohn Auction Company conducted a special auction that included jewelry, wood carvings, grocery gift cards and a long weekend at the beach in a 3-bedroom luxury condominium.

Cultural entertainment included the Watts Family- a family that sings together and stays together in peace, love and harmony. Poetry readings by Jonathan Samuel-Eddie Perkins and Syncere Haynes inspired "unity in the community".

Pam Cohn Leon of Fern Cohn Realty and Cohn Auction Company was the emcee for the evening.

SARN continues "Conversation on Race"
On Wednesday, April 4 at 6pm, the Southern Anti-Racism Network will continue its "Conversation on Race" series with a forum at Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road.

The forum is titled "Labor Rights as Human Rights" and will bring attention to the use of prison labor in Muscogee County.

Richard Jessie, Columbus NAACP, 2nd Vice-President and Ben Speight, Organizing Director for Atlanta Local 728, Teamsters Truck Drivers and Helpers will speak.

The April 4 forum will commemorate the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A short video featuring Dr. King standing in support of labor rights will be shown. Ms. El-Amin will serve as moderator for the forum.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a prison labor truck on the streets of Columbus with a mesh-like opening as the only ventilation for prisoners working for Columbus Consolidated Government" said El-Amin, Regional Project Director of the Southern Anti-Racism Network and chair of the Labor and Industry Committee of the Columbus NAACP branch.

The forum is co-sponsored by One Columbus and the Columbus Black History Museum and Archives.

A lively discussion is expected.

Contact: Theresa El-Amin
PSSARN@aol.com
762-821-1107 or 919-824-0659

Report back from UN Commission on the Status of Women
SARN Regional Project Director, Theresa El-Amin of Columbus, Georgia, was a delegate of the US section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women Conference, February 25-March 3.

Ms. El-Amin reported back at a forum on March 19 at Columbus Public Library which rounded out the Women's History Month activities sponsored by SARN. Read more about it here.

Ms El-Amin also reported back on Thursday, March 8th at an open community event at North Carolina Central University for International Women's Day.

International Women's Day 2012

From left: Esteria Woods-White (Esteria Woods International Outreach Foundation),
Courtney Scott (Shaw University student), Theresa El-Amin (Southern Anti-Racism Network)
and Beth Dehghan (WomenNC).

SARN Names "Reliable Ally" Award for Richard "Dick" Paddock

At his 70th birthday party on December 18, 2011, Richard "Dick" Paddock was presented the inaugural Richard Paddock “Reliable Ally” award by Theresa El-Amin, SARN Regional Project Director. Dick was surprised to learn that SARN board members had agreed to name the signature "Reliable Ally" award in his honor. All future awards will be presented to recipients as the Richard Paddock "Reliable Ally" Award.

Before the award was presented, several of Dick's friends: Melvin Montford, Lucy Lewis, Miriam Thompson, Lori Hoyt, Margaret Misch, and Tana Hartman recognized his work in the areas of anti-racism, peace and justice, labor rights, education, and the environment. The Raging Grannies also serenaded Dick with a song. Rita Gonzalez (SARN Vice-Chair) and Azuela also provided songs in Spanish. Jan Atkins, Columbus board member, traveled to Chapel Hill to participate in the special celebration.

Food from Vimala Rajendran's Curryblossom Cafe, decorations were by Tana Hartman and a lovely 70th Birthday banner from Signarama in Durham and procured by SARN Secretary Anne Wolfley added to the festivities. A birthday cake shared by all rounded out the celebration.

SARN Celebrates Human Rights Week in Columbus
SARN celebrated Human Rights Week in Columbus GA in December 8 and December 10. Read about it here in English or aquí en español.

No Nukes Tour October 3-8, 2011
On October 3, the No Nukes Tour kicked off in North Carolina with a press conference at 10am at the State Capitol, 1 East Edenton Street. The tour brought attention to nuclear power-related environmental injustice in the southeastern United States.

A public forum took place in Charlotte on October 3, 7pm, at the Cornwell Center of Myers Park Baptist Church, 2001 Selwyn Avenue, Charlotte 28207 (directly across from Queen University). Speakers included Jim Warren of the NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (d); Theresa El-Amin, Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN) and Howie Hawkins. Howie Hawkins travelled from Syracuse, NY to participate in all stops of the tour in NC, SC, GA, AL and northern FL.

Howie Hawkins is co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the United States in 1984. Mr. Hawkins told audiences, "We need a Green New Deal that restores the commitments in the old New Deal including full employment, income security and the right to health care. A Green New Deal needs to go beyond the old New Deal to fund a public investment program that puts people back to work building sustainable prosperity based on replacing nuclear and fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy, mass transit, organic agriculture and clean manufacturing."

Why a No Nukes tour in the South?
The outline of environmental injustice overshadows nuclear power. This injustice extends to commercial nuclear plants, uranium mines, fuel enrichment and fabrication plants, and waste sites. Most of all, this injustice affects miners, nuclear workers, and families living near radioactive facilities.

Recent studies indicate that there is nuclear power-related environmental injustice, particularly in the southeastern United States. Is this ongoing inequality deliberate? Or have the habits and patterns of the past become so much a part of the landscape that the image of a colorblind society can be maintained even while injustice persists?

We must remind and convince officials to take into account this pernicious, unwanted legacy when and where nuclear power decisions are made. This is why we organized the No Nukes Tour.

Co-Sponsors
- Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (www.bredl.org)
- Florida Green Party (www.flgp.org)
- Georgia Green Party (www.georgiagreenparty.org)
- North Carolina Green Party (www.ncgreenparty.org)
- North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN) (www.ncwarn.org)
- Nuclear Watch South (www.nonukesyall.org)
- South Carolina Green Party (www.scgreenparty.org)
- South Carolina Progressive Network (www.scpronet.com)
- Southern Anti-Racism Network (www.projectsarn.org)
- Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (www.georgiawand.org)

Tour Stops
October 3
Raleigh Old State House, 10am
Contact: Lou Zeller, bredl@skybest.com or (336) 977-0852

Myers Park Baptist Church, Charlotte, 7pm
Contact: Beth Henry, bethhenry@carolina.rr.com or (704) 650-6776

October 4
Columbia, University of South Carolina, 4pm
Contact: Scott West, slwest@gmail.com or (347) 581-0230

Columbia AFL-CIO/CLC, Mojeska Simkins House, 7pm
Contact: Jenny Patterson, jennypatterson@knology.net or
(843) 270-1308

October 5
Augusta, Paine College, 9am
Contact: Charles Utley, cnutley@comcast.net or (706) 772-5558

Atlanta, NRC Regional Office, 3pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659

Columbus, Denny's, 7pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659

October 6
Atlanta, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions Luncheon, 1pm
Contact: Amanda Hill, ahill@wand.org, (404) 524-5999

October 7
Dothan, Farley Plant, 9am
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659

Gainesville, Friends Meeting House, 7pm
Contact: Michael Canney, alachuagreen@gmail.com or (386) 418-3791

October 8
The public was invited to College of Charleston Robert Scott Smalls Bldg room 235 on Saturday, October 8 at noon to participate in the 4-state No Nukes Tour with Howie Hawkins. South Carolina is our nation’s largest nuclear waste dump. Several nuke power plants are planned to be built heavily funded by taxpayers in the South. Environmentalists, labor and economic justice activists are organizing to fight back against this massive expense that is a deadly danger to all. Fukishima, Chernobyl, Ft. Calhoun and 3 Mile Island can happen again. SCG&E is recklessly ignoring all safety while repressing green technologies of solar, wind, wave and hydrogen power systems that pose zero dangers.

A press conference is scheduled at 4 p.m. Mt Pleasant Library Auditorium on October 8.

Local contact 843-926-1750 Larry Carter Center
Southern Anti-Racism Network host theresa El-Amin 919-824-0659

Georgia Killed Troy Davis

Troy Davis is Free

All of the prayers for Troy Davis have been answered. And the answer is: "Troy Davis is a martyr in the struggle to end the death penalty in Georgia." As a veteran of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee I will do all that I can to honor Troy and the millions around the world who worked to save his life. Troy Davis understood that he is not the first innocent man to be killed at the hands of the state. His last words forgave his killers. Can DA Chisolm and the Board of Pardons and Paroles forgive themselves?

Eyewitness testimony is the most unreliable evidence that can be provided. DA Larry Chisolm said, "There are two Troy Davis cases, the legal case and the public relations case." Unfortunately, Mr. Chisolm couldn't see that his "legal" case fell apart years ago when 7 of the 9 witnesses recanted. Unfortunately, Mr. Chisolm was so bent on winning his case that he ignored the fact that his case disintegrated as the whole world watched.

My condolences to the MacPhail and Davis families. For me, the death of a loved one is a wound that somehow never really goes away. I've said to my family, "If I'm murdered and they cut my body up in a thousand pieces, don't kill them for me."

I'm convinced that a state should not have the right to take a life. As Thomas Jefferson said, "I shall ask for the abolition of the punishment of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me."

The Troy Davis case was fraught with the flaws of human judgment from the witnesses who testified and recanted to the DA who refused to acknowledge his case had fallen apart to the MacPhail family members who believed the Fraternal Order of Police.

The Troy Davis case is over. However, two wrongs have never led to justice. As Francis Bacon said in 1625, "Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out." DA Larry Chisolm, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Supreme Court have failed to weed out the revenge that often comes with the killing of a police officer.

It's now up to the state legislature to create law that will protect us from revenge and move us towards true justice. The state should not kill people to demonstrate that killing people is wrong. The death penalty is "unjust in the much". Abolition of the death penalty is what I'll work for the rest of my life.

Theresa El-Amin

This article appeared as an op-ed in the Ledger-Enquirer based in Columbus, GA.

Columbus Mobilized for September 16th

The Columbus NAACP sponsored a "Too Much Doubt" press conference to support clemency for Troy Davis on Friday, September 16, 10am at the Government Center in Columbus, 100 10th Street. September 16 activities sponsored by the Columbus NAACP were part of a global day of action to save the life of Troy Davis. After the 10am press conference on Friday, a bus took Columbus residents to Atlanta for a march and prayer service culminating at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Martin Luther King Jr. National Park. The bus, which was sponsored by Amnesty International USA and the Southern Anti-Racism Network, left from the Macon Road K-mart at 4pm.

On August 19, 1989 an off-duty police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, was shot and killed. The prime suspect identified Troy Davis as the person who killed the police officer. Since that tragic evening, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony. Several have said that they were pressured by the police to identify Troy Davis. Of the two remaining witnesses, one is the initial suspect. In spite of these serious doubts about his guilt, the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis on September 21, 2011.

Former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Congressmen Hank Johnson and John Lewis, former FBI Director and Judge William Sessions all called for a new trial for Troy Davis and have spoken out against his execution.