Book Review

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

By Judy Heumann and Kristen Joiner. Beacon Press, 2020. 240 pages. $26.95, hardcover.

In this autobiography, Heumann tells her story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and work for basic human rights for people with disabilities.

"Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people." Her expensive advocacy work lead to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as several other important laws and regulations positively affecting the lives of people with disabilities.

 Civil Righhts Trainings

The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights provides  training support to agencies and individuals in Maryland. MCCR seeks to provide current and accurate information on issues affecting equal access and opportunity in housing, employment, public accommodations and state contracts. Through our Community Outreach & Education program, we offer workshops and seminars to agencies, businesses, and organizations throughout the State. For more information on our trainings, contact Dia Drake-Sprague   Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

Lessening Racial Inequality

President Joe Biden Orders Federal Government to do More to Address Racial Inequality

 

The President's new Executive Order requires that an initial review into long-standing disparities in government services and treatment that he issued as Executive Order #13985 on his first day in office become an annual requirement for federal agencies. The reviews are aimed at increasing access to federal programs, services, and activities for disadvantaged communities. The new order also directs federal agencies to have equity teams and name senior leaders who would be accountable for increasing equity and addressing bias. 

As the Order states:

"When any segment of society is denied the full promise of America, our entire Nation is held back. But when we lift each other up, we are all lifted up. As the President has said: 'Advancing equity is not a one-year project. It’s a generational commitment.'"

The Executive Order:

• Launches a new annual process to strengthen racial equity and support for underserved communities.
• Empowers Federal equity leaders. 
• Strengthens community partnerships and engagement. 
• Invests in underserved communities. 
• Improves economic opportunity in rural and urban communities. 
• Addresses emerging civil rights risks. 
• Promotes data equity and transparency. 

Federal agencies would need to improve the quality and frequency of their engagement with communities that have faced systemic discrimination. Also, the order formalizes Biden’s goal of a 50% bump in federal procurement dollars that go to small and disadvantaged businesses by 2025. Under the order, agencies must also focus on new civil rights threats, such as discrimination in automated technology and access for people with disabilities and for those who speak languages other than English. It also includes a push to improve the collection, transparency and analysis of data to help improve equity.

To read more about additional steps agencies have taken and the Administration’s efforts to advance equity and justice for underserved communities, go to www.whitehouse.gov/equity. See agency 2022 Equity Action Plans and relevant links at www.performance.gov/equity.

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Sources:

Read the April 16, 2023 Associated Press article.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/16/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-across-the-federal-government/.

Maryland

New Maryland Attorney General to Emphasize Civil Rights Violation Enforcement

Maryland Attorney General-elect Anthony G. Brown wants more authority than his predecessors to go after civil rights violators and to investigate police departments for patterns of misconduct. Former Congressman Brown said he will ask the General Assembly to pass legislation that enables him to sue companies and individuals who violate federal or state civil rights laws, for example, in housing or employment. The only states that have this are the District, New York, and California.

He has been reimagining the 850-member office under his leadership, looking at what other attorneys general are doing, and considering what actions he will take. Maryland's new Governor, Comptroller, and Brown have said they will attack systemic problems to make the state fairer and more just.

Brown said the system in Maryland that allows a person to file a discrimination complaint with the Maryland Civil Rights Commission or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is not sufficient to root out violators. “The Civil Rights Commission has been doing great work for 53 years, but what they don’t do is they don’t do class action. They don’t do multi-jurisdictional,” he said. He said while the commission may have the authority to bring “big-impact litigation,” it typically does not. Brown thinks that a company with a pattern of discriminating against employees or a landlord with multiple complexes in other states outside Maryland who engages in bias should be held accountable. “We’re going to the General Assembly this session both for the authority and the resources it’s going to take [for] attorneys and investigators to be able to stand up that type of unit,” he said.

As Brown assumes office, Maryland has become the most diverse state on the East Coast according to census figures. He said it is crucial to correct the generational and pervasive inequities that have disproportionately affected people of color, including in housing, employment, policing and contracting. Brown recently told a town hall of advocates who were urging him to weigh in on housing, policing and other issues that his “North Star will be equity.” During a recent interview, Brown said “The principles, the values of fairness and justice will be the lens through which we will see the world."

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Source: Read the January 2, 2023 Washington Post article.

 CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM SEEKING APPLICANTS

MCCR CRLP Program

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. New CRLP Session Beginning!!!! ​The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights Leadership Program (CRLP) is a free three-day academy designed to provide training and insight to emerging leaders by fostering a comprehensive and supportive educational environment wherein program participants will engage with experienced Civil Rights leaders, scholars, and practitioners in order to learn more about career paths and opportunities in the field.   The program will be held virtually  on March 2-5, 2023.  Topics covered will be, but not limited to:   Training on Maryland's Anti-Discrimination Laws and MCCR Enforcement Legal Overview/Investigative Practices Civil Rights Career Forum​ For more information, click HERE Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

Stay Connected with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights

Lecture by George Lakey, Peace & Civil Rights Activist

  FREE Lecture (via Zoom/In-person) by GEORGE LAKEY,
  Peace & Civil Rights Activist
November 20th at 3:15 p.m.

Sunday, November 20 @ 3:15 PM 

 In-Person (Homewood Friends Meeting - Baltimore - 3107 N. Charles Street)

Note: COVID Precautions - Masks are required while attending the event in person. They can be removed while eating or drinking for the reception afterward.

Please Register HERE for either in-person or online participation or to be sent the link afterward. It's free! 

George Lakey is a queer, Quaker activist and master storyteller who will share about his lifetime involvement in nonviolent struggles for peace, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, labor justice, and the environment. He will emphasize lessons from his life that apply to us during these challenging times, finding hope in even the darkest of times through strategic joyful activism.  

Consider joining us beforehand for the monthly Baltimore Black Lives Matter Interfaith Coalition Rally from 1:30 – 2:30 PM in front of Homewood Friends Meeting (with refreshments in-between events).

George Lakey is the author of the memoir, "Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice, and the book, "How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning. This event follows a prescient webinar Baltimore PeaceBuilders sponsored in September 2020 featuring George Lakey discussing: "What to do if there is a Coup? Nonviolent Civil Resistance." 

 

From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission of building a better world through nonviolent movements for justice. Lakey draws us into the center of history-making events, telling often serious stories with playfulness and intimacy. In his memoir, "Dancing with History", he describes the personal, political, and theoretical—coming out as bisexual to his Quaker community while known as a church leader and family man, protesting against the war in Vietnam by delivering medical supplies through the naval blockade in the South China Sea, and applying his academic study of nonviolent resistance to creative tactics in direct action campaigns.

George Lakey was born into a white working-class family in a small town in rural Pennsylvania and has been active in direct action campaigns for seven decades. He recently retired from Swarthmore College, where he was the Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change. He has been named Peace Educator of the Year and was given the Paul Robeson Social Justice Award and the Martin Luther King Peace Award. He is a regular contributor to the Waging Nonviolence/People Powered News and Analysis and he was a founding member of the Earth Quaker Action Team. He also wrote the book "Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right." He lives in Philadelphia.

ORGANIZERS

The Baltimore PeaceBuilders (a project of Central Maryland Ecumenical Council)

The vision of the Baltimore PeaceBuilders is to be an incubator of the Beloved Community as the framework for the future we can build together

CO-SPONSORS

• Homewood Friends Meeting (Quaker)

• Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum

• Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl

• Stony Run Friends Meeting (Quaker)

• Black Lives Matter Interfaith Coalition

 Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron Establishes New Civil Rights Section

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, has established a new Civil Rights and Special Victims Section. Sarah A. Marquardt and Paul E. Budlow are Co-Chiefs of the new Section and Charles D. Austin is Deputy Chief. The office said that "This section will be a beacon for protecting civil rights and addressing victim-related crimes requiring specialized skills."

The Civil Rights and Special Victims Section will be staffed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) from the Civil Division and Criminal Division.  The Criminal Division’s Major Crimes Section AUSAs and support staff will be merged into the new section.  The new section will continue Major Crimes’ strong focus on cases involving vulnerable victims and federal criminal civil rights enforcement, including child exploitation, human trafficking, and identity theft.   

The new section will also enforce a wide spectrum of federal civil rights laws in order to protect the constitutional rights of Marylanders and affirm equal opportunity for all, regardless of one’s race, ethnicity, sex, color, disability, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation.  The section’s civil rights work will focus on prosecuting hate crimes, eradicating discrimination in housing, preventing voter suppression, prohibiting discriminatory employment practices by state and local government employers, ensuring equal opportunity for Marylanders with disabilities, and investigating denials of equal protection to students by public schools and institutions of higher learning.

Read the October 7, 2022 US Attorney release.

Maryland Commission on Civil Rights

Celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month 2022 

The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, (MCCR), and its Board of Commissioners regularly recognize special emphasis commemorations. From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the National Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the many contributions, diverse cultures, and extensive histories of the American Hispanic and Latinx community. According to the census, 62.6 million of the United States identify as Hispanic or Latinx, making them the nation's largest racial or ethnic minority. In Maryland, Hispanic/Latinx make up 12 percent of the Maryland population and number around 744,000.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively.

During this Hispanic Heritage Month, MCCR encourages Marylanders to learn more about the culture and contributions the Hispanic/Latinx community have made in society.  Look for your local community events. To assist you in your search, below is a brief list of activities throughout Maryland:

• Prince Georges County Dept of Parks and Recreation Hispanic Heritage Month Calendar of Events
• Montgomery College Calendar of Events
• Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Kickoff (In Waldorf, MD)
• City of Mount Rainer's Latino Heritage Month Celebration
• Hispanic Business on BAM (Business, Advocacy and Mentorship)! Showcase
• 14thAnnual Latino Festival of Frederick, MD
• Annual Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration and Presentation of Community Service Awards
• Hispanic Heritage Month: Hispanic Leadership Awards Dinner
• 3rddAnnual Latin Rhythms Festival

The MCCR and its Board of Commissioners are united in celebrating all cultures, and in resolving anti-discrimination through enforcement of the State's anti-discrimination laws, and through public outreach and education.

For information on MCCR, visit https://mccr.maryland.gov/

Maryland Commission on Civil Rights

The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (MCCR) represents the interest of the State to ensure equal opportunity for all through enforcement of Title 20 of the State Government Article and Title 19 of the State Finance & Procurement Article, Annotated Code of Maryland.  MCCR investigates complaints of discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and state contracts filed by members of protected classes under federal and state law.

U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) is the premier federal agency that focuses on expanding homeownership, increasing access to affordable housing, strengthening communities through economic development, fighting housing discrimination, and tackling homelessness issues.

Stay Connected with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights