• Undocubus connects immigrants to civil rights legacy at DNC

    Undocubus connects immigrants to civil rights legacy at DNC

    The Undocubus, a busload of undocumented activists from Arizona, rode across the Deep South throughout the month of August to call attention to immigration policies that criminalize immigrants and separate families. The group arrived at the Democratic National Convention on Saturday, 48 years and eight presidential administrations after civil rights activists enacted a similar strategy in 1964.

    The legacy of the civil rights movement holds rich implications for contemporary struggles over immigrant rights. In the lead-up to the 1964 presidential election, organizers working in Mississippi hosted Freedom Summer, bringing hundreds of whites from across the nation to spend their summer living alongside blacks and registering them to vote in some of the most violent segregated towns in the South.

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  • Fearless and Speaking for Ourselves

    Fearless and Speaking for Ourselves

    Yesterday was one of the most important days of my life. It gave me the opportunity to speak to the people who are directly hurting our community. I, and three of my fellow No Papers No Fear riders - Mari Cruz Jimenez, Maria Huerta, and Jose Mangandi - stood up during the testimony of Kris Kobach, the author of SB 1070, while he was addressing the United States Commission on Civil Rights, testifying on the effects of state immigration laws. He was sitting at the table like an expert, when we know there is no one who knows the effects of immigration laws in our communities better than undocumented immigrants. We had not been included as part of the group to testify, so we stood up, uninvited, and told our stories.

     

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  • In Admiration: Learning about the Civil Rights Movement

    I had heard about the struggle for civil rights in the 60s but it had never mattered to me. I had not realized that I could learn from the struggle, and that it could apply to the situation that I am in. As an undocumented mother from Arizona, the more that I learn and think about organizing for my community, and what strategies we can use to fight for our rights, the more admiration that I have for the civil rights struggles of the African-American community in the United States, and the more that I want to learn from them.

    As we travel through the southern United States, especially through states that have such a rich history of racism against black communities, I have also realized that these are places also of resistance.

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  • No One Can Turn Us Around - No Papers No Fear Exchange with Civil Rights Veterans

     

    In New Orleans, the No Papers No Fear ride for justice had a powerful exchange with civil rights veterans hosted by the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice.
     
    En Nueva Orleans, la jornada por la justicia sin papeles y sin miedo tenía un intercambio profundo con veteranos del movimiento por los derechos civiles facilitado por el Centro de trabajadores de nueva orleans por la justicia racial.
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