Together Baton Rouge has released the following statement regarding proposed changes to the city-parish plan of governance that were recently introduced by the Metro Council. These changes were developed without significant citizen input, so we are asking that the council defer this effort until it can guarantee a truly democratic discussion about restructuring our parish government.

“Out of all the things that we have to fight for, why would we choose the issues that divide us?”

-Rev. Steve Crump, 

ret. Minister, Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge

In colonial Virginia, 1676, an event took place that would shape the American racial landscape for generations. Bacon’s Rebellion was led by Nathaniel Bacon, a young and rich Virginian Planter who mobilized a band of poor, landless whites; small farmers and indentured servants; as well as free and enslaved blacks who wanted access to land that was not available to them under the colony’s “Indian policy”.  The rebellion was quickly extinguished, but the colonial government was sent reeling over the prospect of diverse groups of poor black and white bondsmen and freemen alike coming together to pursue their common self-interest. (Now, let me take pause here to note that the self-interest they were pursuing, in this case, was the appropriation of more land from the indigenous peoples of the region.)  This prompted the colonial government to pass stricter laws governing slaves and free blacks while granting more freedoms to poor whites and indentured servants. Laws were created that prohibited and severely punished enslaved blacks for interacting with free blacks and whites, and slave patrols were formed, requiring non-slaveholding whites to police the slave population. These measures institutionalized a racial divide that inextricably linked the survival of poor whites to the disenfranchisement of poor and enslaved blacks, allowing those who profited from the economic system of slavery unimpeded access to wealth.  

Almost 300 years later, on the morning of April 4, 1968,  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the 2nd-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time of his death, King was organizing a group of sanitation workers in Memphis to protest for fair pay and preparing for the upcoming Poor People's Campaign for economic freedom, which was set to take place in Washington D.C later that year.

About a year before his death, on April 14, 1967, at Stanford University, Dr, King gave what would be one of his final speeches, titled The Other America. In this speech, King paints a picture of two Americas, one that is “overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity”, and another where “millions of work starved men (and women) walk the streets daily in search of jobs that don’t exist,” where people find themselves “perishing on a lonely island of poverty, in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” 

On September 8th, IAF member organizations from across the country came together for a virtual Justice Summit on the topic of Police Reform. The Summit was hosted by The Metropolitan Organization of Houston, alongside fellow IAF member organizations from across the state of Texas. During my first month of service at Together Baton Rouge, I’ve gained a great deal of understanding by reflecting on the ideas and policies presented during the summit. In that same stretch of time, I’ve also had the chance to be brought up to speed on the work of the Criminal Justice Action Team by participating in a number of their meetings and research actions. Thanks to these learning opportunities, I’ve been able to get a much better grip on the complicated set of problems that confronts us as we seek to create more effective and equitable ways of ensuring public safety in our communities.

At the beginning of September, we welcomed some new members to our organizing team at the TBR office. Senior Organizer Khalid Hudson is now joined by Ryan Terribile, an LSU social work intern, as well as Phillip Norman and Abel Thompson, two Serve Louisiana AmeriCorps members who will complete an 11-month term of service with the organization. In addition to his service with TBR, Abel is also supporting Lady Carlson with her work in organizing the West Side Sponsoring Committee.

By shadowing and collaborating with Together Baton Rouge leaders, these three will have the opportunity to learn the craft of organizing during their service terms. They’ll also be supporting the organization with outreach, communications, and capacity-building efforts.

On Wednesday, June 12, Together Baton Rouge Leader Diane Hanley spoke on behalf of Together Baton Rouge in favor of an ITEP application before the EBR Metro Council - because it met the ITEP standards the EBR Metro Council had set.

It made the front page the next day.