Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 08:55:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: "S. E. Anderson" <seanderson@mail.com>
The Black List - http://www.theMarcusGarveyBBS.com
To: Educators, Parents and Community Groups
A CALL FOR EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American journalist and long-time advocate
for racial and economic justice. In 1969, he was a high school student
and a writer for the weekly newspaper of the Black Panther Party. In
1980, he was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists
in Philadelphia and was well known for his writings and radio commentary
on the racism and brutality of that city's police force. In 1982, he
was convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. He has
been a prisoner on death row for 17 years.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has maintained that he is innocent. His supporters have
presented evidence that calls into question the verdict and the entire
conduct of the courts and the police in his case; they are demanding a
new trial. The Police Department, the District Attorney's office
and the Mayor of Philadelphia believe that he is guilty, and that his
death sentence should be carried out.
Over the next year--as his final appeal is heard in the federal
courts--the fate of Mumia Abu-Jamal will be determined. Public debate
and activity around his case are expected to intensify.
* * * * *
We are public school teachers from Oakland, California and New York
City. Between January and May 1999, educators in dozens of schools in
the Bay Area and New York City offered lessons on issues raised by the
case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We found that our students benefited
enormously from these lessons. We are asking other educators to join
with us this Fall in presenting pro and con readings, discussion,
debate, writing assignments, video showings, rap/poetry workshops, and
art projects in the public schools and other educational sites.
In particular, we suggest that educators schedule their lessons to take
advantage of the publicity that will be generated during "Mumia
Awareness Week," called by his supporters for September 19-25, 1999.
Briefly, we'd like to explain why we think this is an important topic
for study in public schools. We also want to tell you about some of the
innovative lesson plans and other educational resources that we found
effective.
WHY TEACH ABOUT MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM?
1. The Case is History in the Making.
This summer, Philadelphia newspapers reported that Pennsylvania Governor
Tom Ridge will sign a death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the near
future. This fall, Jamal's legal team will file the final appeal of his
conviction and death sentence in the federal courts. Mumia Abu-Jamal
may be granted a new trial. Or, he may become the sixth radical
activist to be officially executed in the U.S. in this century amidst
protests of innocence and judicial misconduct --following labor
organizer Joe Hill, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and
communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
As this journalist's life hangs in the balance, educators can give
students a sense of historicity--the unfolding of events in a world of
possibility, where outcomes are not pre-determined, where individual
actions, social movements and institutional traditions have their
impact, where public opinion and pressure can have a palpable effect.
2. The case raises issues crucial to preparing students for full
participation in society--issues central to U.S. history, Black history,
law and government, ethics, economics, arts and media studies.
* Is the criminal justice system fair to all?
* Should the death penalty be legal? Is it ethical?
* What should be the standards of evidence for capital cases?
* Is it right for police and the FBI to conduct surveillance of
political activists, including high school and college students?
* Does a person's political beliefs and involvement with political
groups affect the way a judge and jury would judge him? Should it?
* Should prisoners be able to speak to the media or publish their
writing?
* Why is the incarceration rate in the U.S. the highest in the world?
* Why do African-American men, who are only 6% of the U.S. population,
constitute 40% of the people on Death Row?
* Is there a prison/industrial complex? If so, who benefits from it?
Who loses?
* What is the relationship between U.S. police departments and the
communities in which they work?
* Why are documented incidents of police brutality rising nationwide,
especially in communities of color?
3. The Case is Controversial and Calls for Examining Multiple
Perspectives.
There are strong social movements for and against a new trial for Mumia
Abu-Jamal. Maureen Faulkner, widow of slain police officer Daniel
Faulkner, is speaking widely, making appearances on ABC's "20/20"
program and college campuses. The 283,000-member Fraternal Order of
Police (FOP), the largest organization of U.S. law enforcement
professionals, is mobilizing police officers and their supporters around
the country to demand a speedy execution. The FOP's recent convention
called for a public boycott of firms and individuals lending support to
Jamal.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, authors Alice Walker and Elie Wiesel, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Danielle Mitterand, widow of the French
prime minister, and the musical group Rage Against the Machine are among
those calling for a new trial. On April 24, 1999, West Coast
longshoremen organized in the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union staged a one-day political strike to demand freedom for Mumia
Abu-Jamal--an action virtually without precedent in U.S. labor history.
Never before has the death penalty been such a focal point of popular
debate in the U.S. as today. On August 22, The New York Times devoted a
major article, "Living Alumni of Death Row," to examining whether the
lives of innocent people are being taken by the state. It pointed out
that "In Illinois, one of the two states without a statute of
limitations (the other is New York), one inmate has been exonerated for
every inmate executed over the last 12 years."
This controversy, and the resonance of many issues raised by Mumia
Abu-Jamal's case in mass media and popular culture (from the liberal
film "Dead Man Walking" to Clint Eastwood's death penalty drama "True
Crime," from folk music to hip hop, and in a broad spectrum of visual
and performance art) has engaged students powerfully. The cogent and
rebellious voice of Jamal himself, heard in his radio commentaries and
now collected on compact disc, has also made the case more compelling
for students.
HOW WE'VE TAUGHT ABOUT THE CASE
We strongly believe that students should be exposed to different
viewpoints on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and related issues--followed by
critical study and discussion. In order to achieve our educational
goals, all students (as well as their teachers) must be encouraged to
express their views freely. Only in this way can students develop
their:
* critical thinking skills
* ability to read, analyze and write about key texts that take opposing
positions
* creativity and intelligence in the visual arts, dance, music, raps,
poems and plays
* ability to develop, defend, and act constructively on their own
positions.
The activities that we have used with our students include:
*showings of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt? (a British
documentary shown on PBS stations), which offers both prosecution and
defense arguments, followed by a review of the evidence by a student
jury;
* debates on the death penalty;
* discussions of Mumia Abu-Jamal's writings on the criminal justice
system and racism;
* writing op ed pieces;
* historical research on the imprisonment of political activists.
The Oakland teach-in on "Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Death Penalty" on
January 14, 1999 came under public attack for supposedly distracting
students from learning the 3R's and raising their test scores. But many
students eloquently defended their right to have the teach-in and
described the importance and relevance to them of the issues it raised.
They explained that the focus on Mumia Abu-Jamal had increased their
motivation to come to school--prepared to participate and learn. By
contrast, when some school districts in Philadelphia, western
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts banned in-school activities around
Jamal's case in April 1999, hundreds of students walked out of their
schools.
In Oakland, attempts by the Board of Education and some administrators
to cancel the teach-in did not stop many teachers from going ahead with
the lessons they had prepared. With the support of impassioned
students, parents and respected community members, these teachers
invited TV news teams into their classrooms on the day of the teach-in.
In New York City, educational activities occurred in at least 25 small
and large high schools on May 11, 1999. In some schools, one or two
teachers showed "A Case for Reasonable Doubt?" or assigned some of
Jamal's writings. These lessons were often integrated into a social
studies or African-American literature unit. In one of these high
schools, five more teachers then decided to teach material on the case
after their students said they didn't want to miss out on what their
friends had studied in their classes.
In a number of schools, students initiated their own research projects,
and wrote and performed poems and raps about what Mumia Abu-Jamal meant
to them. In another school, nearly all classes discussed the case and
related issues; speakers from legal and prisoners' rights organizations
addressed a school-wide assembly. An after-school event at an
alternative high school in Manhattan was attended by 100 people, mostly
high school students.
Students from Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx linked the
issues raised by Jamal's case to conditions they were experiencing
directly: The police killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 22 year-old
college student from Senegal; the official stop-and-search policy
directed at youth on the street; the take-over of school security by the
Police Department; and the high incarceration rates and increasingly
long prison sentences endured by people they knew.
We are confident that many more teachers around the country brought
Mumia Abu-Jamal's case into their schools last year. If you have done
so, and especially if you can share lesson plans, educational materials
and student work with others, please contact us.
* * * * *
Some will argue that concerns about Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Criminal
Justice System are outside issues that shouldn't be brought into our
schools. But issues of police brutality, the death penalty and racial
profiling are all over TV and the newspapers. These issues are already
in our schools--because our students are thinking and talking about
them. That is why these important issues need to be part of our
curriculum, and this fall's educational activities can be a big step in
that direction.
In the Oakland and New York City schools, we have seen how this approach
has motivated our students to learn, and to develop the skills and
knowledge that they need to succeed and become a positive force in
society. That's why we deeply believe that we would fail our students
and abdicate our mission as educators for a democratic society if we
lack the courage to bring current and contested issues into our
classrooms.
September 5, 1999
Oakland Educators New York City Educators
Andrew Bonthius John Breitbart
Larry Felson Paulette d'Auteuil
Sara Fuchs Dave Pugh
Bob Mandel Juliet Ucelli
Supported by Educators Nationally*
Sam Anderson, Mathematics Educator and Writer, NYC
William Ayers, Author, "A Kind and Just Parent"; Professor of
Education, University of Illinois at Chicago
Bill Bigelow, Editor, Rethinking Schools; High School teacher,
Portland, Oregon
Bakari Chavanu, Steering Committee, National Coalition of Education
Activists. Sacramento, CA
Linda Christensen, Language Arts Coordinator, Portland, Oregon Public
Schools
Marty Hittelman, Senior Vice-President, California Federation of
Teachers
Arlene Inouye, Los Angeles Unified School District, Human Relations
Educator/Commissioner
Stan Karp, Co-Chair, National Coalition of Education Activists; High
School teacher, Paterson, NJ
Michael Klonsky, Director, Small Schools Workshop, University of
Illinois at Chicago
Herb Kohl, Educator and Writer; Senior Fellow, Open Society Institute,
NYC
Elizabeth Martinez, Author, "De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views
for a Multi-Colored Century," Oakland, CA
Deborah Menkart, Teaching for Change/Network of Educators on the
Americas, Washington, D.C.
Larry Miller, Editor, Rethinking Schools; High School teacher,
Milwaukee, WI
Bob Peterson, Editor, Rethinking Schools; Fifth grade teacher,
Milwaukee, WI
Ken Rice, School Board Director, Oakland, CA
Ellen Somekawa, Parent and Activist, Philadelphia, PA
* The organizations above are listed for identification purposes only.
* * * * * * * * * *
SELECTED EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(1) Web sites with educational materials and lesson plans
** www.aspenlinx.com/mumia:
(On the home page, click on "Teach-In Index," and then look for "Mumia
Curriculum" and "Death Penalty Curriculum.") Educational resources
developed by teachers in Oakland for their teach-in in January 1999. At
present these materials are located within a broader Bay Area website.
** www.geocities.com/collegepark/square/3889:
Resources developed by NYC teachers. There are currently three lesson
plans, with more to come. This site contains a link to the "Justice for
Daniel Faulkner" website, which contains an extensive set of materials
arguing that Jamal is guilty.
(2) Video, Books and CD
** To purchase the video, Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt?
write to: Bob Mandel c/o Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, 3425
Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. Price: $10, includes
postage. Please make out your check to "Bob Mandel."
** Mumia Abu-Jamal's first book, Live from Death Row, is now widely
available in paperback. Price: $12. (If you cannot find it locally,
contact Plough Publishing below.)
** Jamal's second book, Death Blossoms (with a foreword by Cornel West)
is available from Plough Publishing House, part of the Bruderhof
Christian communities. Price: $12, with no shipping/handling. Call
1-800-521-8011 to order.
** The compact disc All Things Censored is a compilation of 16 radio
commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal. To purchase the CD, contact Prison
Radio/Quixote in San Francisco at (415) 648-4505. Price: $15 each;
$6.50 each for more than 10 copies.
(3) To contact fellow educators who have developed classroom activities
around Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Criminal Justice System:
In New York City, e-mail us at: mumiateachin@yahoo.com
or leave a message for us at: (212) 561-9570
In Oakland, e-mail us at: bobm@ousd.k12.ca.us
or call us at: (510) 536-1216