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Community Groups Sponsor Student Rights Forum on Black History, Voting Rights and Criminal Justice
March 23, 2001
With the hopes of teaching inner city students about their heritage and arming them with knowledge about their rights, local community activists will gather next month to share the rich history of South Florida's black communities and highlight important issues that affect minority communities.
More than 150 inner city students from four high schools in the Overtown, Liberty City, and Little Haiti areas of Miami are expected to attend the Youth Advocacy Day Student Rights Forum from 8 to 11 a.m. April 11, 2001 at Booker T. Washington Senior High School, 1200 NW 6th Ave.
Topics such as harsh juvenile offender laws, race relations and voting rights, all of which have recently been the subject of controversy in Florida, will be among the items discussed at the daytime student forum ? a school-approved field trip for students from William H. Turner Technical High School, Miami Edison Senior, Miami Northwestern Senior, and Miami Jackson Senior.
"Young adults have the right to be treated fairly by police, teachers and other government officials," said Alessandra Soler, Public Education Coordinator of the ACLU of Florida, the non-profit legal organization co-sponsoring the event. "That's why it's extremely important for students to learn what it means to participate fully in the life of this nation and know their rights. This forum aims to teach students just that, while at the same time raising their self-esteem by teaching them about where they come from."
The forum, which also is co-sponsored by the Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida and Miami-Dade County Public Schools Intergenerational Programs, will give students the opportunity to hear from pioneer civil rights activists like Dr. John Brown and Dr. Robert Ingraham and learn about past and present struggles in their own neighborhoods.
Bishop Victor T. Curry, President of the NAACP Miami Chapter, will speak on voting rights in the African-American community. John de Leon, President of the ACLU of Florida's Greater Miami Chapter, will talk about the "tough on crime" attitude that has led to harsh juvenile offender laws. Mr. Thirlee Smith, Jr., of the Miami-Dade Public School's Division of Social Sciences, will give a presentation on the development of black communities in Miami-Dade.
This forum is among the outreach efforts of the Black Archives Youth Advocacy Program (BAYAP), which is sponsored by Florida Learn and Serve K-12 programs and Miami-Dade Public Schools. The program, now in its fourth year, is operated by the Black Archives Foundation. Currently there are 45 students in BAYAP, which aims to teach students about the rich history of Miami's historically black communities, and train them to become ambassadors who advocate for their communities by writing school newsletters, touring historic sites, interviewing community pioneers and producing documentaries and history journals. Participating schools include Booker T. Washington, Edison and Turner Tech Senior High Schools.
Contact Stephanie Wanza, Program Coordinator, Black Archives History and Research Foundation, at (305) 636-2390, or Alessandra Soler, Public Education Coordinator, ACLU of Florida, (305) 576-2337.
