Have you wondered why the Social Forum is being held in Detroit? Many people at the forum, including much of the SCSJ delegation, have never visited Detroit and they got the chance to learn about the city's significance on Wednesday. At the evening plenary, we all learned why Detroit is known as the "City of Resistance.”

Grace Boggs, Detroit’s renowned anti-racism and civil rights community activist fervently detailed the history of political and racial struggle in Detroit, which led to the coining of the term. She explained that Detroit, in the midst of the economic crisis with its car industry, was selected to be the host because of the opportunity it presents to “create something new and something different.”

She, along with former Black Panther members, talked about the many national movements that began in Detroit, including the Shrine, the Freedom Now Party, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Nation of Islam.

In the second part of the plenary, we learned about Detroit’s role as a “border city” and how “secure” the U.S. and Canadian border has become since September 11. While the U.S.-Mexico border cities contain stories of harassment against the Latin@ community, the American Muslim community as well as the Latin@ community, are simultaneously targeted here.

The first mosque in the U.S was founded Detroit in 1921 and the Nation of Islam was founded here in 1931. Since then, the Muslim community has commuted between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, MI for worship. Panelist Malik Yakini from the Counsel of American-Islamic Relations, explained that “every international issue facing the Arab world are local issues faced by the Islamic community in Detroit.” He communicated that their right to worship freely has been greatly affected.

Further talks reflected the infringement upon human rights on a variety of issues. To learn more about the US Social Forum, click here. For more pictures, click here.

Take a stroll through Durham civil and human rights activism (past and present) on the Pauli Murray Project’s ever growing website.

Through audio interviews and text embedded in an interactive map you can see the layered stories behind the new pedestrian bridge lowered over the Durham Freeway/147. This bridge re-connects a neighborhood, home to mostly African-American working-class families, bisected when highway 147 was routed through it twenty years ago.

You might have known about the 1957 protests in front of the Royal Ice Cream Parlor on Roxboro Road, just north of downtown, long before the historical marker was erected this year, but do you know this site is a few blocks away from a central locale on W. Main St. where human rights activists fight healthcare injustices within the offices of the organization El Centro Hispano?

Durham is a city with a rich history of struggle for racial and economic justice, for human and civil rights, and this interactive map is the start of reclaiming the specific and complex histories of Durham. Take, for example, the West Village Apartment Buildings—formerly the Liggett Myers Tobacco Factory, closed in 1999. When you click on the link, you see a photo of workers walking under the covered bridge that is now a corridor from one apartment building to another. This older photo is placed between current pictures of a pristine blue swimming pool and a spacious hardwood floored apartment of West Village. An audio clip narrates a worker’s memory of work in the building when black and white women workers were segregated.

Current marketing of downtown Durham feature the famous tobacco warehouses-turned-studio-apartments/faux-revolution-restaurants that are the revamped darlings of this city. To a visitor or new resident, these buildings may hint at a story of gritty work and harder times, without really knowing the specific story of working conditions, or the multi-racial anti-segregation activist organization housed down the street from this segregated workplace.

For many downtown visitors and loft-dwellers, the ambiguous stories of harder times embodied within the structures of the high-ceiling brick-walled tobacco buildings somehow sweeten the food in the farm-to-fork restaurants. The walls that were constructed to facilitate an industry reliant upon monoculture farming, sharecropping, and racially and economically stratified industry are now filled with food from small, local farms and a ‘clean’ restaurant industry.

However, these buildings are more than testaments of the tobacco industry in Durham and the city’s re-emergence as a city fueled by research, education and pharmaceuticals. They house stories of stratification that still linger in Durham’s under-invested and segregated neighborhoods, displacing processes of gentrification, and trials of low-wage restaurant, farm-worker, service, and healthcare workers.

This map is a way to explore past struggles and triumphs of Durham as they intertwine with the present. Check it out and re-engage with the struggles of Durham as you travel to work, the farmer’s market, or settle in at home.

Mapping Civil and Human Activism—
http://paulimurrayproject.org/mapping-civil-human-activism-live-now/

Felipe Matos is among the top 20 community college students in America, but he’s ineligible for financial aid at the top universities that have accepted him. Gaby Pacheco has three education degrees and plans to use music therapy as a teaching tool for autistic children and adults. Brought to the United States at age 2, Carlos Roa wanted to join the military but could not because of his immigration status.

Three months ago, they embarked on Trail of Dreams, a 1,500 mile walk from Miami to Washington. These students are facing much more than sore feet; several are undocumented, and they risk deportation and detention to share their stories and raise awareness about the need for just immigration reform.

These students exemplify why support is growing for the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would enable students brought to the U.S. at a young age to legally access higher education and financial aid. Every year, 65,000 students graduate U.S. high schools but are denied a college education because of our broken and unjust immigration system. These students include valedictorians, class presidents and community leaders. Yet they are refused the opportunity to further their education and give back to America — the country they see as their home.

Just graduating high school can be more challenging for undocumented students than for their peers; they often must learn English as a second language, take care of family responsibilities that their parents cannot manage without understanding English, overcome low socio-economic status and all that that entails, and cope with the psychological trauma of living in fear of deportation.

Trail of Dreams, which made its way through the Triangle last week, is a journey of hope for these students and the 12 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

For more information, check out the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Statement of Support.

On January 1, 2010, Juan, Carlos, Felipe and Gaby embarked on a 1,500 mile walk from Miami to Washington, D.C. These students are facing much more than sore feet; three of them are undocumented, and they risk deportation and detention in order to share their story and raise awareness about the need for just immigration reform.

Trail of Dreams is a journey of hope for the 12 million undocumented migrants in the United States who live in constant fear, and especially for the students who dream of higher education but are barred from attending college or accessing financial aid because of their citizenship status.

Felipe is among the top 20 community college students in America. He wants to be a teacher and has been accepted to top universities but cannot enroll because he is ineligible for financial aid. Gaby has three education degrees and plans to use music therapy as a teaching tool for autistic children and adults. Brought to the U.S. at age 2, Carlos wanted to join the military but could not because of his immigration status. He is now studying architecture at Miami Dade College. Juan became a U.S. resident last year with the help of his stepmother and wants to earn a sociology degree from the University of Chicago.

These four stellar students exemplify why we must pass the DREAM Act.
65,000 students graduate high school every year, but are denied college access because of our broken and unjust immigration system. These students include Valedictorians, class presidents, and community leaders. Yet they are refused the opportunity to further their education and give back to America — the country they see as their home.

Juan, Carlos, Felipe and Gaby are walking from Chapel Hill to Durham today. We applaud their courage and conviction. They are more than a symbol of hope — they are leaders in a movement for change. Join them.

For more information, check out our Statement of Support, our Press Release, and this column in the Daily Tar Heel.