April 14: Presentation by the Author of "The New Jim Crow"

FCWPP is co-sponsoring a benefit event that will bring the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness to Seattle.  The event is organized by Justice Works!  Click here for a poster announcing the event.

Author and Professor Michelle Alexander will keynote the evening, tracing how racial disparity in the criminal justice system nationwide connects with the historical Jim Crow, creating a new form of the old social ill.  She presents her vision for grassroots organizing for social change to enable policy changes that put Jim Crow behind us forever.

The evening begins with short presentations by champions of recent historic developments in Washington that hold potential to reduce the racial disparity in our criminal justice system.  It ends with an organizing session for 3-Strikes reform.

When:    Wednesday, April 14, 6:30 - 9 PM, 

Where:   Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 5117 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle 

Tickets:  $6 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/102100 or at the door

Background: 1 in 30 adult Washingtonians are behind bars or under community supervision.  An estimated 1 in 20 children is affected at any one time.  This impact falls unequally by race.   Washington is less than 4% Black.  Our prison population is 20% Black.  Our 3-Strikes population is 40% Black. Washington’s criminal justice system is one of the most racially disproportionate nationwide.

Recent developments hold potential to reduce racial disparity in our state.  A law that passed last year restores the right to vote to approximately 167,000 Washingtonians.  In Farrakhan v Gregoire, the US Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit ruled this January that people in prison should vote because the racial disparities in Washington’s criminal justice system cannot be explained in race-neutral ways. Washington, the first 3-Strikes state in the nation, was the first to see a 3-Striker pardoned this year.  There has been a resurgence of the campaign to reform 3-Strikes.

Tom Ewell, Clerk, FCWPP