 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
|
FL POLICE CHIEF: EITHER GEORGE ZIMMERMAN IS LYING OR HIS LAWYER IS |
|
||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
Tag Archives: Florida
Nathan Bedford Forrest High School … Jacksonville, FL
Duval Public Schools: No more KKK High School
-
Petition by
Jacksonville, FL
I moved to Jacksonville from Long Island 12 years ago. Since then, I’ve put down roots here. I’ve helped raise a beautiful daughter here. This place is my home now, and the people who live here deserve better than a high school named for the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.
That’s right, Jacksonville is home to Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, named in honor of a Confederate general who infamously slaughtered Black Union soldiers who’d already surrendered and who was a founding member of the original Ku Klux Klan. The school got its name in 1959, when white civic leaders wanted to protest a court decision that called for integrating public schools.
I don’t want my daughter, or any student, going to a school named under those circumstances. This is a bad look for Florida — with so much racial division in our state, renaming Forrest High would be a step toward healing.
Five years ago, the school board voted 5 – 2 to keep the name. But a lot has changed in five years. All five members who voted for Nathan Bedford Forrest have been replaced. There’s a new school superintendent who publicly stated that he would support a push from our community to change the name. Now is the time to right a historical wrong. African American Jacksonville students shouldn’t have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year.
In the end, I want my child to be able to go anywhere in Jacksonville and be proud of where she is. That can’t happen with Nathan Bedford Forrest High School. Please support changing the name today.
- Petitioning Nikolai P. Vitti
Share this:
Debra Rosen, Walk Free & Florida tomatoes
Publix Super Markets just released their latest financial results – US$7 BILLION in sales for the second quarter of this year1. Good for them, right?
We guess so, except we can’t help wondering: while improving sales and promoting their range of Florida tomatoes why is Publix STILL REFUSING to join the fight against slavery in the U.S. tomato industry?
Florida’s tomato farms supply 50% of all U.S. fresh tomatoes2 but have also been called America’s ‘ground zero for slavery’. Countless workers are held against their will, threatened with violence and forced to haul hundreds of heavy tomato buckets a day for little to no pay.
Thankfully, a new solution called the Fair Food Program has been proven successful in the fight against worker exploitation. But a major U.S. supermarket chain, Publix Super Markets, is refusing to support the Fair Food Program. Publix continues to buy tomatoes from farms where workers still toil beyond the reach of its proven protection from modern slavery.
Tell Publix Super Markets CEO William Crenshaw to join the fight against slavery in the U.S. tomato industry now.
In the past 15 years, over 1,000 people have been freed from modern slavery in Florida’s tomato fields3. The worst employers have been charged with beating workers who attempt to leave, holding employees in debt, and even chaining victims inside U-Haul style trucks as punishment.
Other leading food companies like Subway, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s have already joined the Fair Food Program, demanding a policy of zero tolerance for human rights abuses, including slavery, on tomato farms. However, Publix Super Markets has turned a blind eye to the problem and has yet to take action.
Tell Publix to make the right decision to join the Fair Food Program and ensure our tomatoes meet the highest human rights standards in the food industry today.
We think Publix will make the right choice, but it won’t happen without broad public support. Once you’ve sent your message to Publix, please forward this email on to your friends and family, urging them to join the fight against modern slavery.
Thank you for your support,
Debra, Kate, Mich, Nick, Amy, Jess, Ryan, Hayley and the Walk Free Team
Share this:
Police attack 14-year-old holding puppy
My 14yr old son was brutally attacked by police while he was standing on the beach, holding a puppy. Now, he’s being charged with felony resisting arrest. Tell the State Attorney to drop the charges!
On Memorial Day, I took my kids and our new puppy to the beach near our home in Miami. It was supposed to be a treat. But it turned into a nightmare when the police attacked my 14-year-old son for no reason.
My son Tremaine was horsing around with one of his friends when the police showed up on ATVs. Tremaine was holding a newborn puppy in one hand and a bottle in the other. The police asked him where his mother was, and he turned to walk toward me. That’s when the police pounced on him, threw him to the ground, injuring our puppy and choking Tremaine so hard he urinated on himself.
It was a horrible, violent experience that left my son terrified and depressed. And now the police are charging my son with felony resisting arrest. Resisting arrest — for what? All he was doing was standing on the beach holding a puppy!
Tremaine loves animals, and we love to watch Animal Planet together. He was so excited about our new puppy. Memorial Day was supposed to be a fun kickoff to our summer together — since I work in Miami Dade public schools as a nutritional specialist, I get the summer off to be with my kids.
But now, instead of spending time together, we’re preparing for Tremaine’s hearing on July 16. Instead of worrying whether he’ll stay out too late, I’m worried about finding a good lawyer. I still can’t believe this is happening. The police attacked my son for no reason, and now they’re throwing these charges at him to justify their brutality.
But there is some good news — public pressure can be very powerful in situations like these. Last fall, a man in New York was brutally beaten by police and then charged with resisting arrest, but after more than 100,000 people signed a petition on Change.org, all charges were dropped. I hope that if enough people sign my petition, State’s Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle will drop these trumped up charges against my son.
Thank you,
Maurissa Holmes
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.