Daily Archives: 09/02/2015

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More from 1600 Penn


whitehouselogoMy Visit to Alaska: Touching Down in Anchorage

President Obama offers some thoughts on his trip to Alaska on Medium. See what he has to say about Day 1 of his three-day tour.

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What Dr. Holdren Saw in Alaska:

Ahead of the President’s trip, his Science Advisor Dr. Holdren traveled to Alaska to learn how climate change is already affecting local communities.

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The 49th State’s Place in History

Take a look back at the history of Alaska and why it is so important to protect.

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Upcoming NMAAHC Film Screening! NMAAHC Public Programs


NMAAHC -- National Museum of African American History and Culture

Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Field Day
A Screening and Discussion
Tuesday, September 8, 2015, 7 – 9 PM EDT
American History Museum, Warner Bros. Theater
14th St and Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20001 Please enter through Constitution Avenue NW doors Sponsored by the National Museum of African American
History and Culture Take the Orange, Blue or Silver Line to Federal Triangle or Smithsonian Metro stations
Bert Williams Production Still

The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will screen Lime Kiln Field Day, a silent film created in 1913 starring iconic entertainer Bert Williams with co-stars Odessa Warren Gray, Sam Lucas, Abbie Mitchell among others. It was the nation’s first romantic comedy to feature an all–black cast supported by an interracial production crew.

The unreleased project lay in the vaults of Biograph Film Studio, until 1938 when movie negatives and reels were donated to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). MoMA made the first print of the movie 38 years later and gave it the working title Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Field Day.

A post-screening discussion will feature Mr. Ron Magliozzi, Associate Curator of Film, MoMA and Rhea Combs, Ph.D., NMAAHC film and photography curator. On the evening of the event, Mr. Donald Sosin will play a special music score that he composed specifically for Lime Kiln.

This screening is the first in the Through the African American Lens Film Series offered in conjunction with the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts.

Registration is suggested. As space allows, walk-ups will be welcome. To make a reservation, please follow this link.

For more information about the event, please email NMAAHCpubpggms@si.edu or call 202-633-1000.

On the evening of the event, you can view the program via webcast.
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Stop spying on Black activists! Brandi Collins … ColorOfChange.org


Help expose FBI surveillance of Black Lives Matter events!
The FBI and DHS are illegally monitoring and spying on our movements for justice. Hv

Chip in $15 to help expose FBI surveillance of Black Lives Matter events!

Donate

Why do the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) think fighting for Black lives is a threat to national security?123

From protests to candlelight vigiles, the FBI and DHS are illegally monitoring and spying on our movements for justice.4 If you attended a protest or rally in the last two years- they may even have a file on you! This is a blatant assault on our First Amendment right to organize and speak out against injustice.

Enough is enough! We’re launching an investigation to uncover the FBI and DHS’s monitoring activities of Black Lives Matter protests. Help us fully expose the government’s discriminatory and dangerous spying.

Chip in $15 to help expose FBI surveillance of Black Lives Matter events!

Black and brown folks are dying in the streets daily while our federal government refuses to track police shootings and the group identified as the biggest terror threat to the United States: white extremists.5 Instead of addressing police brutality, the FBI is monitoring and trying to intimidate Black activists. Instead of working to prevent the next Dylann Roof, the DHS is monitoring and trying to block justice movements.

We have too many fights to win and too much on the line to let our movement come under attack!

Over the last few months, it’s been revealed that the FBI, DHS and local police departments have been monitoring the social media accounts of activists and have even tried to intimidate activists at public events.6 They’ve used that information to compile “threat assessments” and provide “situational awareness” — coded language used by law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance of lawful, First Amendment-protected political speech.

This surveillance serves not only to keep tabs on activists, but also to deter them from pushing forward. Surveillance is a tool of fear. These techniques are designed to create a chilling effect on people’s organizing.

With your $15 donation, we can put in FOIA requests for Black Lives Matter protests from the past year plus and pull back the curtain on government spying.

The current surveillance strategy follows a history of domestic surveillance of social movements, including the civil rights movement in the 1960s.7 The FBI notoriously monitored the activities of social justice activists like Congressman John Lewis, Cesar Chavez and the Native American resistance movement through COINTELPRO (COunter INTELigenece PROgram). They subjected Dr. Martin Luther King jr. to extensive wiretapping and even tried to blackmail him into committing suicide.8

Instead of trying to protect Black Americans from actual terrorists and police brutality, they are trying to silence us. This is made all the more disturbing by the fact that these agencies are targeting activists of color with their counter-terrorism units.9 Peaceful protests, vigils, and community organizing should not be treated as national security threats by our government, and yet they are.

What we currently know is a small fraction of the state surveillance against the Black Lives Matter movement. We are going to do everything we can to expose radical and illegal surveillance tactics by the FBI and DHS.

Chip in $15 to help expose FBI surveillance of social justice activists!

Thanks and Peace,

–Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References:

1. “Emails Show Feds Have Monitored ‘Professional Protester’ DeRay Mckesson,” Vice News, 8-11-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5221?t=8&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

2. “EXCLUSIVE: FEDS REGULARLY MONITORED BLACK LIVES MATTER SINCE FERGUSON,” The Intercept, 7-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5222?t=10&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

3. “5 Examples of Our Government Treating BlackLivesMatter Movement Like a Terrorist Group,” Alternet 4-27-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5223?t=12&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

4. “EXCLUSIVE: FEDS REGULARLY MONITORED BLACK LIVES MATTER SINCE FERGUSON,” The Intercept, 7-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5222?t=14&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

5. “White Americans Are Biggest Terror Threat in U.S.: Study,” NBC News, 6-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5224?t=16&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

6. “At Last Night’s Solidarity March, the NYPD ‘Came Out Swinging’,” The Nation, 4-30-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5225?t=18&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

7. FBI Records: The Vault: Black Extremist, FBI
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5226?t=20&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

8. “The History of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the F.B.I.,” Huffington Post, 1-20-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5227?t=22&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE

9. “EXCLUSIVE: FEDS REGULARLY MONITORED BLACK LIVES MATTER SINCE FERGUSON,” The Intercept, 7-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5222?t=24&akid=4728.1174326.n-STiE