A Dream Grows in Brooklyn Kelly Maby: Wheaton College

Goals The was not just an Era of progress in Black History, but also ushered in some of the most influential and significant events in American history. That is what so many people have yet to realize, that black nonviolent activism for social change was not only for the betterment of the African American race, but also for all Americans.

A movement cannot continue and progress without understanding its past. By teaching civil rights era history, exposing program participants to living historical figures, and facilitating youth leadership opportunities, ACRES (American Civil Rights Education Services, Inc.) promotes cross-cultural understanding, celebrates diversity, and seeks—in the words of Congressman —“to lay down the burden of race”, all in the pursuit of a more peaceful society.

Description Peace depends on the ability of people to confront and transcend difficulties. Many inner city youth today feel trapped, relegated to self-fulfilling prophecies of violence and failure. I am confident that this would not be true if students knew more about their heritage.

Habitually viewed as a negative force in society, young people frequently lack a defined place in their communities and constructive avenues for civic participation and self-expression. This is often compounded for low-income and minority students who may have added language, financial, and discriminatory challenges facing them. The American Civil Rights Education Services (ACRES), headquartered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant, provides civil rights education programs for students from traditionally marginalized communities. By teaching inner-city students about the Civil Rights Movement, students realize that the injustices they see and experience do not have to be tolerated or accepted as just a part of life. Students meet Civil Rights leaders and participants who decided years ago that it was time to demand their rights. There is no reason why youth must submit to the status quo instead of being consciously engaged.

I propose to work with ACRES to help students who find themselves uncomfortably juxtaposed between the lessons of and the realities of urban life. It is extremely important to recognize the potential in each and every student. To address that goal, I will develop five travel-study scholarships for students to travel across the South, where they will learn from Civil Rights leaders and heroes who fought for equal rights. To be able to show five students in inner city public schools that someone believes in them is a powerful motivator for students to value education and nonviolence. By implementing this project with ACRES, students will be challenged to see the power of their vote and their voice, and to contribute to reducing the incidence of incarcerated minority youths. Working together with the ACRES Youth Council, the Youth Employment Program, and programs to prevent youth incarceration, students will learn how silence, indifference and inaction encourage further injustices, and will be able to examine more critically the cycles of violence in their communities.

The Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood, stifled in the stigmas of poverty, crime, and inferior public schools, fits the vision of Peace Projects. The reputation of this neighborhood itself constrains any opportunity for students to rise above their socio-economic status and to become productive and informed adults. All too often youth feel trapped inside the cycles of ignorance and poverty, and subvert themselves to what they have been convinced is the way things are.

It is my strong conviction that the urban reality for many of today’s youth does not have to be the reality of tomorrow. With the help of the volunteers at ACRES, I will ensure that students know their history of nonviolent protest and will encourage students to apply this knowledge to their lives. I propose to work with ACRES from June through August, the time when New York City students are not in school and need structure and a safe space to learn and to express themselves. During this time I will work with existing volunteers and recruit new ones to ensure that ACRES will be able to continue its work with students. Not only will we work to create programs that will serve students better, but we will research innovative ways of fundraising and of developing organizational support to ensure sustainability.

After students return from their study-tour, they will be encouraged to enroll in a for-credit class at College in the fall to further supplement the lessons they learned on the trip and encourage their transition into higher education. Students will be invited to join the ACRES Youth Council to continue the ideals of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in their neighborhoods. Alumni will receive the student-led newsletter, The Harvest, to maintain awareness of ACRES events and share their experiences.

I know that ACRES can make a difference in the lives of inner city kids because of what it did for me when I was in high school. It motivated me to study harder when ACRES offered me a travel-study scholarship to meet with the movement leaders who made sure that I benefit from an equal education today. It convinced me that it was now my responsibility to continue on with the Movement’s achievements when I attended supplementary education classes run by ACRES. It made me strive towards a college education when ACRES helped me to win a scholarship to study in South Africa my senior year, where I visited schools in Soweto with few resources and little funding. ACRES showed me that ignorance isn’t bliss and that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”1

The 100 Projects for Peace grant will allow me to show students, just like me, that peace in Brooklyn and the wider world can be attained if we make a commitment towards education. The struggle is not over. As a county there is still a long road towards peace, and ACRES is willing to give students the confidence and support they need on their journeys of nonviolent .

“These people, like living breathing pages torn out of history books inspired me to become more active in the causes about which I feel strongly. Their example of sacrifice, intelligence, dedication and faith is something that I, in my own life, hope to emulate, if only to some small degree. I also pray that my generation and I will be worthy of their sacrifice and be able carriers of the torch they lit” - Daniel Gradess, Beacon School. ACRES alum

“I not only learned of the struggles that civil rights activists had to endure, but I also improved the ways in which I interact with people. I learned from Ms. Elizabeth Eckford, of the , that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when the motivation is outside themselves. Interacting with some of these ordinary people was a profound and unforgettable point in my life. The entire experience gave me a deeper understanding of our collective potential to make changes. Since my return, I have been motivated to strive for excellence in all my academic, as well as personal ventures.” - Lauren Williams, Science Skills Center H.S., ACRES alum

Itinerary 2008 Day One: Bus to Jackson, MS; visit Smith Robertson Museum and speak with , the first African American to integrate the University of Mississippi; meet , brother of Medgar Evers and former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy at his radio station WMPR. Freedom singer conducts a special evening session of lore and song.

Day Two: Visit home of Medgar Evers, the site of his assassination; bus through the Mississippi Delta on ACRES Dream Express to Little Rock, AR; visit Central High School; attend dinner and dialogue with Elizabeth Eckford and family members of Minnijean Brown Trickey, veterans of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central H.S. in 1957.

Day Three: Bus to Memphis, TN; drive by site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Mountaintop speech; visit National Civil Rights Museum, site of Dr. King’s assassination; attend motivational lecture by the Rev. Dr. Billy Kyles, eyewitness to Dr. King’s assassination; ACRES dance marathon at the Gay Hawk Restaurant.

Day Four: Bus to Nashville, TN; attend lunch and dialogue with RFK Justice Dept. aide John Seigenthaler, Sr. at the First Amendment Center, Vanderbilt University; tour American Baptist, Tennessee State, Fisk, Meharry and Vanderbilt campuses, where the Sit-In Movement developed.

Day Five: Bus to Birmingham, AL; watch Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls documentary. Visit and dine with Chris & Maxine McNair, the parents of Denise McNair, one of the four little girls slain in the infamous 1963 church bombing; dialogue with Freedom Ride veteran Catherine Burkes-Brooks; visit with Ms. Brooks; bus to Prattville, AL.

Day Six: Bus to Selma, AL; take walking tour of Selma with ; visit the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute and Enslavement & Civil War Museum. across the , site of Bloody Sunday. Dine with civil rights attorneys J.L. Chestnut and , Esq., whose lawsuit outlawed segregation in interstate travel. Mayor James Perkins, Selma’s first African American mayor, will address the group if his schedule allows.

Day Seven: Bus to Montgomery, AL; visit mile marker 111 on Highway 80, where civil rights volunteer (mother of two) was gunned down in 1965; visit Museum; visit at the Southern Poverty Law Center; take part in readings on the steps of the state Capitol where Gov. Wallace and Dr. King spoke, visit Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. King’s first pastorate and the Dexter Parsonage.

Day Eight: Bus to Tuskegee, AL; visit Museum and Booker T. Washington’s house, The Oaks, on Tuskegee University Campus; visit Amelia Boynton-Robinson and Omar Neal. Bus to Atlanta, GA; dinner with the Rev. C.T. Vivian, SCLC veteran.

Day Nine: Visit MLK Center. ACRES commencement exercises at MLK’s tomb – hold commemorative readings and dialogue with SCLC veterans Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian, Rev. Dr. , and Rev. Lula Joe Williams. Possible visit with Martin Luther King III. Lunch at MLK Center and possible visit with Hon. John Lewis, SNCC founder and U.S. Congressman from GA (his schedule permitting). Visit Dr. King’s birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church. Fly home.

1 Martin Luther King, Jr.