events
A Non-Violent direct action teach-in open to all students of social justice
Although we have witnessed an unprecedented uprising of citizens in the fight for social justice through these past months, many of you may continue to wonder ‘what is it that I can do, and how can I do it?’ The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice will hold a nonviolent direct-action teach-in entitled ‘The Good Trouble Lab,’ in which participants will receive training on how to engage in nonviolent direct action, and moreover, how students can leverage their position and voice to effect real change. The session will examine how students across the globe and at Harvard have successfully engaged in non-violent direct action, and the steps for building your own campaign. Dr. Erica Chenoweth and Rev. Stephen A. Green will join us as guest speakers.
william monroe trotter collaborative presents
A presentation and reading of portions of Frederick Douglass’ prophetic words by members of the Harvard Community.
Harvard University Human Rights and Social Justice Centers Condemn Police Violence in the United States
Trotter Collaborative / June 3, 2020
Media Contacts: Center for Public Leadership: Lael Harris, lael_harris@hks.harvard.edu
The following is a joint statement from the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice,Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Institute, and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School.
“We strongly condemn the Minneapolis Police Department’s vicious and brutal murder of George Floyd. This and other recent events highlight the lethal impact of the racist criminalization of Americans of African descent and the need to explicitly name and unequivocally fight against the racism and violence that has been woven into the fabric of the United States since its founding.
It is understandable that this longstanding, flagrant disregard for the human rights of African Americans has led to outrage across the country. We call on law enforcement officers responding to demonstrations to exercise utmost restraint and work closely with community leaders to avoid escalating the situation further.
The murders of African Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes must stop and perpetrators must be charged and brought to justice. As research centers at Harvard University committed to human rights, we affirm the values of racial equity, justice, and non-violence. For the future of the United States, our public leaders must urgently do the same.”
about us
Building Coalitions to Change
Policy and Empower People
Conceived in 2018, the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership advances the social justice and civil rights legacy of William Monroe Trotter. We foster research on excellence in social justice and collaboration with local and national level organizations operating in the spheres of public interest and policy, as well as in the areas of community engagement and government. We conduct and employ applied research that supports efforts to promote advocacy, citizen activism, and impactful, non-partisan policy solutions to civil rights and social justice issues. Through this pedagogy, the Trotter Collaborative meaningfully addresses local and national civil rights challenges.
TROTTER COMMUNITY FORUM
The Life and Legacy of Congressman John Lewis and Reverend CT Vivian
John Robert Lewis. Cordy Tindell Vivian. Two elders in the struggle for freedom and liberation have transitioned to the ancestral realm. From the ends of
“Education and work are levers to uplift a people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not only teach work-it must teach life.”
-W.E.B. Dubois
issues
Wrongs That We Must Right
In this modern day, a litany of issues continue to spur us toward civil rights and social justice activism. Throughout the United States, activism has reflected public policy issues being debated both in government and in academia. These issues include: systemic voter suppression of minorities through tactics such as gerrymandering; digitally fueled hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans, and transgender people; racial discrimination in both public and private settings; police violence captured on viral videos; and economic injustice experienced by both racial minorities and a non-urban “white working class” in similar yet far from identical ways. The Trotter Collaborative aims to combat these systemic issues through applied research and policy recommendations designed to support the efforts of social justice organizations in the United States.
Mass Incarceration
Today, the United States makes up about 5% of the world’s population and has 21% of the world’s incarcerated population.
Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people incarcerated in America increased from roughly 500,000 to over 2.2 million.
Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, despite being 13 percent of the US population.
Police Brutality
Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, despite being 13 percent of the US population.
Racial minorities made up about 37.4 percent of the general population in the US and 46.6 percent of armed and unarmed victims, but they made up 62.7 percent of unarmed people killed by police.
On average, in the United States, a police officer takes the life of a citizen every 7 hours.
Between 2016 and 2018, the Brennan Center found Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida removed an unusually high number of names from their voter rolls. Both Georgia and North Carolina removed over 10 percent of registrations from their voter lists, and Florida removed more than 7 percent. Since 2015, Alabama election officials purged 658,000 voters, according to the state’s chief election official. This number is dramatic given that the state had only 3.3 million registered voters in 2016.
Photos: Tom Fitzsimmons, Rosemary Ketchum, Martha Stewart