Georgia On My Mind: The Third Reconstruction

The 47^th People's World African American History Celebration will be held virtually on Sunday, February 28 at 4:00 pm, “Georgia On My Mind: The Third Reconstruction.” Register here.

Organizers said, “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.”

The program will feature a panel of a few of the 70 New Haven canvassers who went to Georgia with Unite Here and New Haven Rising to help voters get to polls for the runoff elections that determined control of the U.S. Senate.

Keynote speaker Lewis R. Gordon, is author of many books including newly published “Freedom, Justice and Decolonization.” A scholar of Africana Philosophy, social activist and musician, Dr. Gordon chairs the Department of Philosophy at University of Connecticut at Storrs, and several international philosophical associations. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Yale University.

During the program, awards will be presented for the Black History Month Arts and Writing Competition, grades 8 to 12. All entries must be submitted by 5 pm on Friday, February 19, 2021 The competition announcement is posed on Facebook at Connecticut People's World Committee, 

The program will also include video of the annual Black History Month Youth March and Caravan to be held on Saturday, February 20. Gather at Tyrick B. Keyes corner (Bassett and Newhall Sts) at 1 pm for the march, car caravan and rally at the Q House on Dixwell Ave.

This event is a fundraiser for People's World which has suffered income loss due to the pandemic. Throughout the decades of struggle for civil rights, peace and economic justice, People's World has reported and stood on the side of freedom fighters. Your contribution will enable this valuable voice to continue to educate and uplift the movement for equality.

The invitation to participate in the arts and writing competition states:

“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 competition invitation quotes Rev William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign and author of “The Third Reconstruction”:

“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.”

For more information about the program, the competition or the march and caravan e-mail the planning committee at: ct-pww@pobox.com or leave a message at 203-624-8664. Event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3689219991193695/