Chanting “Just say No to the new Jim Crow” and “The War on Drugs is a war on us”, hundreds of protesters, many of them young activists who had come to Washington DC in buses from Pittsburgh and New York, marched on June 17th from the AME Church on 15th Street to Lafayette Park across from the White House where they staged a rally demanding that the Obama Administration end the war on drugs which disproportionally targets young African Americans.
They also called on the President to focus more attention on the “epidemic” of Black unemployment across the country. Featured speakers at both the church and Lafayette Park rallies were Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of Rainbow Push and Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW). Among the many grassroots leaders who also spoke at the rallies in the church and in front of the White House were:
* Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
President, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
Rev. Ronald E. Braxton
Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Baba Leonard Dunston
Convener, IBW Black Family Summit
Neill Franklin
Executive Director,
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Bertha Lewis
Founder/President, The Black Institute
Jasiri X
Hip Hop Activist
Rev. Lennox Yearwood
President, Hip Hop Caucus
* Dr. Boyce Watkins
Professor of Finance,
Syracuse University, Political Commentator
Rev. Kenny Glasgow
Executive Director,
The Ordinary People’s Society
Dean Williams
Formerly Convicted Citizens Project
Khalid Raheem
National Council for Urban Peace and Justice
Atty. Nkechi Taifa
Senior Policy Analyst,
Open Society Foundations
Rev. Willie Wilson
Senior Pastor,
Union Temple Baptist Church
* Rev. Tony Lee
Senior Pastor,
Community of Hope AME Church
Karen Garrison
“Mommie Activist,”
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Courtney Stewart
Chairman,
The Reentry Network for Returning Citizens
Dr. Divine Pryor
Executive Director,
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions
Tyrone Parker
Executive Director,
Alliance of Concerned Men
Sonnie Jones
Baltimore Justice Collaborative Activist
Dr. Marvin Cheatham
Civil Rights and Election Law Consultant
Ron Hampton
Washington Representative,
Blacks in Law Enforcement of America
Joe Beasley
Founder/President, African Ascensions
Charles Thorton
Director of D.C. Office of Returning Citizens
David Mann
Man Up! Inc.
* Bilal Qayyum
President, Father’s Day Rally Committee, Inc.
Calvin Woodland
Chief of Staff, D.C. First Ward Council Member
Amin Muslim
Director of Constituent Services,
D.C. 7TH Ward Council Member
Donald Marlon
Representative, Youth Build
Trayvon White
Representative, D.C. School Board
Minister Abdul Khadir Muhammad
Eastern and Mid-Atlantic Representative, Nation of Islam
Rev. Kelly D. Wilkins
Minister of Social Justice & Re-entry, Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ
Anthony J. Motley
Administrator, Cathedral of Christ Baptist Church
Lamont Carey
Spoken Word Artist
Roach Brown
President and Founder
Inner Voices, Inc. and Radio Talk Show Host, WPFW
Mark Thompson
Host, Make It Plain, SIRIUS/XM
Declaring the crises in distressed Black communities a “State of Emergency,” Dr. Ron Daniels, President of IBW states: “there is a direct connection between the so called War on Drugs as a racially biased strategy and the devastation, death and destruction in America’s ‘dark ghettos.’ The recent ALCU Study of marijuana arrests clearly confirms what we have known for some time, ‘the War on drugs is a war on us,’ a war that has severely damaged Black communities across the country. The devastation and damage must end. As an initial step, it is imperative that we stop criminalizing young Black men and women for possession of marijuana. Equally important, we must increasingly demand that the whole issue of drugs be addressed as a national public health matter. Finally, we must have a massive jobs and economic development program with a priority on formerly incarcerated persons to begin to heal Black families and communities. We need President Obama to go beyond lecturing us about ‘personal responsibility’ and declare the State of Emergency in America’s dark ghettos a moral and political crisis which requires immediate action!”
Photos
Photos courtesy the National Black United Front
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Pittsburghers join War on Drugs rally
