From Nebraskans for Peace:
Save the date:
Keynote speaker A’Jamal Byndon, Adjunct Professor at UNO, will deliver his talk, “The Status of Race Relations – Where Are We?”
NFP Rice and beverages will be furnished.
Please RSVP so we know how much NFP Rice to cook. Reach the NFP office at 402-453-0776 or NFPOmaha@nebraskansforpeace.org.
From the Progressive Research Institute of Nebraska:
Jill Reese, Alliance for a Just Society Associate Director, will talk about “How to build a sustainable grassroots resistance movement” at UNO’s Community Engagement Center April 10. The talk will begin and 10 a.m., include a luncheon, and wrap up at 1 p.m.
To eat lunch during this event, you must purchase a box lunch from UNO Catering. You can register without lunch (but are not allowed to bring your own food into the CEC).
The Alliance for a Just Society’s mission is to execute regional and national campaigns and build strong state affiliate organizations and partnerships that address economic, racial, and social inequities.
From the Lincoln Journal Star:
A U.S. district judge Monday struck down Nebraska’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, setting the stage for county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses next week.
The state quickly scrambled to request a stay that would delay the March 9 date Judge Joseph Bataillon set for his order to go into effect.
In the order posted early Monday, Bataillon called section 29 of the state Constitution — Nebraska’s Defense of Marriage act — an “unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens.”
Approved by 70 percent of voters in 2000, the ban defines a valid marriage as one between a man and a woman.
The state has the right to encourage couples to marry and provide support for one another, the judge wrote.
“However, those laws must be enforced equally and without respect to gender. It is time to bring this unequal provision to an end.”
From the Interfaith Peacemaking Coalition:
SAVE THE DATE: Leonard Pitts will keynote this year’s Interfaith Peacemaking Workshop, First United Methodist Church, 2723 N. 50th St., Lincoln, NE, 1:00 to 5:30 p.m., on April 12th.
Leonard Pitts will speak for about 45 minutes, followed by time to view exhibits. There then will be five break-out sessions:
There will be a gathering of people interested in working at the grassroots level to reduce racial disparities in the four key areas of Poverty, Child Welfare, Education, and Justice. We will meet Friday, November 7, at the Community Engagement Center, UNO Campus, from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
This Omaha-area project is the result of ongoing conversations between Black Men United, Policy Research & Innovations, Nebraska Appleseed, Nebraskans for Peace, Nebraska Family Collaborative, the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, Voices for Children, and the University of Nebraska Omaha. We believe that change begins at the local level with a mobilized public; we will ask participants to help bring about positive change in the four areas mentioned above.
From Progressive Omaha:
Please try to attend this important presentation on behalf of 43-years-incarcerated Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice.) We are continuing to educate the community to the travesty of justice involved with this case. In particular, the role played by the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) that manipulated evidence and enabled numerous law enforcement agencies to frame and prosecute black activists in the 1960s and 1970s for crimes they didn’t commit.
Michael Richardson is a nationally-recognized research expert on the COINTELPRO and he is coming to Omaha:
The Malcolm X Center
3448 Evans Street, Omaha
July 21, 7 to 9 p.m.
We will open with a spoken-word performance by the great With Love, Felicia (Felicia Webster). We will pass the hat at the end of the program, and any donations will be given to the Nebraskans for Justice organization, the primary group that has been fighting for the release of Poindexter and we Langa.
Don’t forget these brothers. After 43 years in prison, they are still on the clock. Hope you can attend. Bring somebody with you.
Thank you,
Walter Brooks
From the Omaha World-Herald, a short profile of Professor Meredith Bacon, one of UNO’s most honorable professors and an inspiration to thousands of students:
The Faculty Senate president at the University of Nebraska at Omaha completed a third one-year term Wednesday, but not consecutively — and now under a different name from the first two terms.
“Two as Wally,” the outgoing president said, “and one as Meredith.”
Meredith Bacon, formerly known as Walter M. Bacon Jr., is believed to be the first transgender person in America elected as a college or university faculty leader.
From ACLU of Nebraska:
Join the ACLU of Nebraska, national partner the Human Rights Campaign, and community groups around the state for a community meeting close to you to discuss the results of the recent survey of LGBT people in Nebraska. The response was overwhelming. Thousands of LGBT people in Nebraska and across the country shared their lived experiences at home, school, work, and in their houses of worship. They told us what their priorities are for moving our community forward. You won’t want to miss out on the results of one of the largest surveys of LGBT people in the country. Come hear the results of the survey – and add your voice to the conversation.
Upcoming meetings in Scottsbluff, Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha, and Norfolk.
From the Omaha World-Herald:
A bill banning job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is back on the front burner in the Nebraska Legislature.
The measure, patterned after an anti-bias ordinance in Omaha, appeared dead in February. But after a change of heart, a state legislative committee advanced Legislative Bill 485 to debate by the full Legislature.
“It’s a good day for equal rights,” said Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad, sponsor of the anti-bias bill.