African American History Month Arts and Writing Competition 2021

Arts and Writing Competition for Students Grades 8 to 12 

 Sponsored annually by Connecticut People's World Committee to remember the lives and dedication of Dalzenia Henry and Virginia Henry to the youth of New Haven and to make a better future.

Georgia On My Mind: The Third Reconstruction

Black women voters led the victory in Georgia that elected the first Black and Jewish U.S. Senators in the deep South since slavery. The historic organizing, which included Latinx, immigrant, Native American, Asian and union members, overcame every vicious white supremacist and corporate effort at voter suppression.

“More than 100,000 voters who did not participate in November are voting in this election, have already cast their ballots, and they are disproportionately voters of color and disproportionately young voters,” said Stacey Abrams who led the grass roots mobilization.

The election in Georgia represents a call for fundamental reconstruction to finally uproot the poisonous legacy of slavery. There is a new understanding of the horrors of systemic racism coming out of the pandemic and the police murders of Black people which gave rise to mass protests across the nation and world last summer.

“If the Reconstruction of the southern states, from slavery to free labor, and from aristocracy to industrial democracy, had been conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort, we should be living in a different world.” said the great W.E.B. DuBois in his book “Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880” (1935).

The first Reconstruction briefly flourished after Emancipation, and the second Reconstruction ushered in meaningful progress in the civil rights era (1960's). But both were met by ferocious reactionary measures that severely curtailed, and in many cases rolled back, racial and economic progress. This Third Reconstruction is a profoundly moral awakening of justice-loving people united in a fusion coalition powerful enough to reclaim the possibility of democracy—even in the face of corporate-financed extremism says Rev. William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign author of “The Third Reconstruction.”

“Our model of moral fusion comes out of Reconstruction, when black and white people after slavery got together to reconstruct the south and to rewrite constitutions and to implement policies that would address the post-effects of slavery...We also use Dr. King's model that racism, poverty, and militarism are the triple evils destroying the America society.”

Express in artwork, essay, poetry, rap or song:

• In this third period of Reconstruction what legislation should be enacted to uproot racism, given that Kamala Harris, the first African American female vice president, has the historic tie breaking vote in the Senate?

• What organizing did it take to get people out to vote in Georgia in spite of the massive voter suppression and intimidation tactics used by the right-wing targeting people of color?

Requirements + Digital art work, drawings, paintings, collage, prints, photographs, etc.

                        + Essay, poem, rap or song – Not longer than 2 pages

Deadline Entries must be received by 5 pm on Friday, February 19, 2021 MUST INCLUDE:

Entry title, Name, address, phone, e-mail, age, school, teacher's name (where applicable)

Submission E-mail all entries to: ct-pww@pobox.com

Prizes Gift cards ($100 first place, $50 second place, $25 third place) and books

Presentation Prizes and recognition for all entries will be presented Sunday, February 28, 20221 at 4 pm at the virtual 47th Annual African American History Month Celebration hosted by the Connecticut People's World Committee.

Information e-mail to: ct-pww@pobox.com Phone messages can be left at: 203-624-8664