Racial Justice
KFTC is working for a day when discrimination is wiped out of our laws, habits, and hearts.
Rally for Voting Rights makes an impact
Today's Rally for Voting Rights in Frankfort was a strong combination – THIRTY organizational cosponsors, FOURTEEN people with felonies in their past telling their stories under the capitol dome, SIX media outlets covering the event, about 175 attendees, and with all that we built a lot of momentum and awareness for our fight for Voting Rights.
Voting Rights bill comes up for a hearing in House
On Monday, members of the House Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee heard a voting rights bill to restore the right to vote to people with felonies in their past who have served their debt to society.
Primary sponsor Representative George Brown was joined by Representative Charles Booker and Representative Jason Nemes as a united and bipartisan front of legislators testifying in favor of the bill.
Voting Rights Coalition forges a path forward
Today, we had our first Voting Rights Coalition meeting! Twenty-six people from 19 organizations came out to get to know each other and to start to forge a path forward to win the right to vote of 312,000 Kentucky citizens with felonies in their past.
There was a lot of good will and great ideas in the room and we're now together with a shared analysis and rough path forward.
About 25 additional organizations are interested in joining the conversation or have been in conversation with us on the issue, but weren't able to make it out to this meeting. It's a solid start.
Powerful Voting Rights lobby day in Frankfort
Today nearly 100 KFTC members and close allies gathered in Frankfort to talk to legislators about restoring voting rights to people with felonies in their past and push for a constitutional amendment that would recognize the right to vote of 312,000 Kentuckians who can't vote now because of our felony disenfranchisement law that is out of step with the rest of the United States. Dozens of the people who came out talked about the issue from first hand experience, having the right to vote in Kentucky taken away from them.
We had meetings with over 30 legislators and built up support for the issue with Democrats and Republicans alike, including many legislators who just got elected for the first time this last November. The vast majority of senators and representatives we talked to said they were in favor of restoring voting rights.
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KFTC's Racial Justice Committee
KFTC's Racial Justice Committee helps ensure the organization is incorporating racial justice and anti-oppression into all of our work and strategies. The Racial Justice Committee’s work includes informing the membership on issues affecting racial justice, coordinating education and skill-building opportunities, and ensuring that racial justice principles are applied to all areas of KFTC’s program of work in an intersectional way. The Committee helps ensure KFTC is being a good ally and is working in solidarity with other organizations on these issues.
Where we stand
KFTC's Statement on Black Lives Matter - Why 'Black Lives Matter' matters
KFTC's Statement on Immigrants, Refugees, and Muslims
Resources
KFTC is launching a political education curriculum in 2021 where we will learn from abolitionist perspectives about defunding the police and moving toward our vision for ALL people to enjoy a better quality of life. Sign up to stay informed on when this curriculum will launch at cutt.ly/PoliEdSeries
VIDEOS
Unvictimizable: Fatphobia and Ableism as Weapons of Antiblack Violence with Professor Anna Mollow (32 minute video)
Lydia Brown on Disability Justice Intersection with Racial Justice and Queer/Trans Liberation (40 minute video)
ARTICLES
1619 Project – New York Times Magazine
400 years ago, in August 1619, a ship landed at a British colony in what is now Virginia carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the colonists. 250 years of slavery followed. On the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in the U.S. the New York Times tries to truthfully tell the story of what happened then, and since.
Journal of Environmental Sociology on Intersections of disability justice, racial justice, and environmental justice (a bit academic, but very relevant)
Trump's Rule Attacking Disabled and Low-Income Migrants Has Violent History (Truth Out opinion piece)
A US Immigration Policy History of White Supremacy and Ableism (Aljazeera opinion piece)
Jim Crow’s Disabilities: Racial Injury, Immobility, and the Terrible Handicap in the Literature of James Weldon Johnson (Project Muse)
OTHER
Book recommendations from Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation
Fighting for Social Justice: The Power of Women of Color (a short timeline)
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