Posted by: KFTC Staff on September 20, 2013
On October 15, the University of Louisville Kentucky Author Forum will present a public event featuring Congressman John Lewis and MSNBC News anchor Rachel Maddow in Louisville.
Rep. John Lewis is Georgia’s 5th Congressional District Representative, the son of sharecroppers in Alabama, and a pillar of the civil rights movement across many decades. His story has recently been told in a new book, the graphic novel called March.
KFTC is thrilled to have secured 15 seats to this event to share with our members.
Please use the form below if you are interested in attending. All KFTC members are welcome to apply for one of 15 available spots. Our Leadership Development Committee will have the hard and important task of selecting a diverse set of members to participate.
To apply to attend the public event with Congressman Lewis, please fill out this form.
If you want to make your own plans to attend the event, go here.
Posted by: Cory Lowery on September 19, 2013
The Madison County Chapter held its annual Friend-Raiser this past weekend, drawing 75 guests to Berea’s picturesque and secluded HomeGrown Hideaways. Veteran members and prospective members alike were treated to an evening of fun and food, along with some friendly competition in the form of a silent auction.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on September 19, 2013
More than 10,000 young people from across the country are making plans to converge in Pittsburgh October 18-21 for a conference known as Power Shift 2013. The event is being planned by and for young activists who are working to solve the climate crisis and build a clean, just and thriving economy that work for workers and young people.
KFTC is collaborating with the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition (KSEC) to help send a large, diverse set of Kentuckians to this event.
Please use the form below if you are interested in representing KFTC at Power Shift 2013. All KFTC members are welcome to apply for one of 10 available spots. We’ll give special consideration to young people and people who live in communities directly affected by extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
Whether or not KFTC is able to directly support your participation in Power Shift, we’ll do our best to connect everyone with information about registration, transportation and lodging being organized by KSEC. To learn more about and support KSEC’s efforts to send a total of 500 Kentuckians to Power Shift 2013, you can visit www.kystudentenvironmentalcoalition.org
To apply to be part of KFTC’s delegation to Power Shift 2013, please fill out this form.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on September 18, 2013
Momentum is building in the campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their sentence in Kentucky. And comments made this week by US Senator Rand Paul are the latest indication that proposed changes to the Kentucky Constitution could finally win approval in 2014.
For nearly 8 years, KFTC and our allies have organized, lobbied, door-knocked, rallied and prayed together in support of a constitutional amendment known as HB 70. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, seeks to reform Kentucky’s outdated constitution, which has barred people with felony convictions from voting since 1792. Once adopted, the measure would restore civil rights to most non-violent offenders upon completion of their full sentence.
Posted by: Lisa Aug on September 16, 2013
State Senator Paul Hornback favors restoring voting rights to former felons who have served their time, but wants to make them wait two to five years after completing their sentences before being a
Posted by: KFTC staff on September 13, 2013
The forecast is looking superb for the annual Madison County KFTC Friend-Raiser set for tomorrow, Saturday, September 14, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at HomeGrown Hideaways (500 Floyd Branch Rd., Berea). This free, family-friendly event will feature live music from Carla Gover, tasty food, a great silent auction, and an evening of good fun all to celebrate and support KFTC’s work. The Friend-Raiser has been the main fundraising event for the Madison County chapter in years past, and members have been working hard to make sure this year is as great as ever.
Posted by: KFTC on September 12, 2013
In January of this year, the Rowan County KFTC Chapter voted to begin working with the Kentucky Fairness Coalition on a fairness ordinance for the city of Morehead.
After educating themselves on the issue, chapter members met with members of the city council to express their support for fairness and provide useful information from the Kentucky Coalition. At the end of August and beginning of September, the chapter helped organize the impressive turn out for the September 6 city council meeting, where chapter members Annie Adams and Cody Montgomery and Maria Horn, a student representative from Morehead State University’s Gay Straight Alliance, spoke in favor of the legislation.
Posted by: KFTC on September 6, 2013
Kentuckians came from all over the state – especially from communities along the potential route of the opposed Bluegrass Pipeline – to Frankfort on Thursday afternoon for a hearing about the pipel
Posted by: Elijah McKensie on September 5, 2013
KFTC sent a delegation of 11 people to participate in the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They traveled with a group of about 100 Kentuckians on buses organized by the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. These reflections and photos are from one member who made the trip.
Fifty years have passed since the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when Martin Luther King Jr. famously bellowed, “I have a dream” here on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where I now stand.
There are deeply eroded grooves on each marble step, worn and weary from the footsteps of previous generations who likewise marched for equality. From the 1913 Women Suffrage Parade to the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in 1957, these steps have become sacred ground for the forgotten, neglected, and disenfranchised citizens of our nation.
Now here we stand, honoring the legacy of Dr. King, Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and others who sacrificed their lives so that my generation could freely go to the polls on Election Day and attend integrated schools.
Posted by: Ryan Fenwick on August 27, 2013
We all know money talks, but surely not to the American justice system, right? Bruce Stanely knows it does, at least in West Virginia where powerful coal baron Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, bought two West Virginia Supreme Court Justices. Stanely, presenting the book about his experience, The Price of Justice, told 55 attendees in an overflow crowd at Carmichael’s Book Store Frankfort Ave. about the 14-year struggle he took part in against Massey Energy and its coal baron mastermind Blankenship. The struggle would result in sabotaged computers, behind the scenes trips to the French Riviera, betrayal by disgruntled lovers, and winning a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s the sort of intrigue that usually belongs in a Grisham novel—in fact, Grisham has publicly said he wishes he wrote the book.
