By Dione Friends
Online Media Coordinator

Deaths of Trayvon Martin and a beaten Iraqi mother in San Diego are extreme examples of the need for civil rights dialogue in America. We started that much needed dialogue at our day long Civil Right Conference last month. A civil rights coalition made up of civil rights organizations from around the state came together to discuss Civil rights post 9/11, immigrants’ rights, and Criminal Law Reform. Hundreds of concerned Texans gathered for an entire day to listen. The day was topped off with a moving speech from Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!

Check out our full recap:

Oscar Chacon, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, kicked off the conference with a civil rights overview.

Understanding Civil Rights Post 9/11

Mustafaa Carroll of CAIR Texas Houston Chapter moderated the Understanding Civil Rights Post 9/11 track.

Corey Saylor from CAIR spoke about islamaphobia and civil rights post 9/11.

Rick Halperin of SMU said, “Free speech in this country stops at the sidewalk of the supreme court” during his presentation on the right to protest and free speech. One Twitter follower wrote: “Rick Halperin of SMU killer speech on US history of oppression and free speech.”

Matt Simpson [Pictured middle] from the ACLU of Texas followed with a great speech about national security and privacy issues post 9/11.

Immigrants’ Rights

Baldo Garza of LULAC moderated the immigrants rights panel.

Krystal Gomez [Pictured far left] from the ACLU of Texas presented on detention and deportation. Brent Wilkes [Pictured middle] from LULAC followed with a talk on immigration reform. Geoff Hoffman [Pictured far right] from the UH Law Center Immigration Clinic ended the discussion with a presentation about local, state, and federal enforcement.

Tribute to Cesar Chavez

Lunch was served during a tribute to César Chávez by Frank Curiel who was once Chávez’s bodyguard and close friend.

Our twitter followers wrote: “Things I didn’t know about Cesar Chavez: he was an environmentalist and vegetarian.”

And “Great perspective on Cesar Chavez life & struggle of farm workers by Frank Curiel.”

Criminal Justice Reform

Watch the Criminal Justice panel. Tarsha Jackson from Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth moderated. Ana Yanez-Correa [Pictured far right] from TCJC presented on over-incarceration. Gislaine Williams [Pictured middle right] from the ACLU of Texas discussed the school-to-prison pipeline and bullying in public schools. Gislaine said, “talking in class shouldn’t be a class c misdemeanor!”

Bob Libal [Pictured middle left] from Grassroots Leadership talked private prisons.

Dave Atwood [Pictured far left] from HPJC and TCADP closed the discussion with a speech about the death penalty in Texas. Dave stated, “The death penalty on its way out. Except in Ohio and Southern states.”

Amy Goodman

The room filled up for the keynote address by Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!

Amy urged listeners to actively fight for civil rights by quoting Barack Obama, “I don’t disagree with anything you say but you’ll have to make me do it.” If you missed her speech watch it here now.

By Louis Casiano

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Civil-rights-leaders-gather-for-Houston-3451253.php

Updated 07:36 p.m., Sunday, April 1, 2012

The deaths of Trayvon Martin and Shaima Al Awadi sparked national outrage and have since fueled continued conversation on civil rights in Houston and across the nation.

Dozens of concerned citizens met Saturday at an all-day Civil Rights Coalition conference at the Houston Community College West Loop campus to discuss civil rights, immigration and the criminal justice system in a post 9/11 world.

Participants discussed the deaths of Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old who was shot and killed in Florida last month by a community-watch leader, and Al Awadi, who died last week in California after being found severely beaten next to a note that read “go back to your country.”

‘Anti-everything’

“We do have a lot of people in this community, a significant minority, who are anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic, anti-everything,” said Mustafaa Carroll, executive director for the Houston chapter for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Representatives for CAIR touched on the rise of islamophobia after 9/11 and privacy issues, such as the monitoring of particular people and organizations.

Carroll said that while Islamophobia in the U.S. is not widespread, the rhetoric of some public officials creates an environment where it can flourish.

“You have elected officials making ugly comments,” he said. It’s one thing for citizens to make it, but once you become an elected official you don’t represent one segment of a community, you represent the entire community.”

Speakers from the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Texas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, among other groups, elaborated on the business of detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants and the separation of families.

“This whole detention issue has spawned off a business to it,” said Baldomero Garza III, LULAC national vice president for the Southwest. “Now you’ve put a profit really above what you’re supposed to be doing, and anytime you have that it becomes a problem.”

A major issue that resonated with many attendees was the death penalty. Long-time Houston activist David Atwood, a former president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, reiterated that the death penalty is not protected by the Constitution and doesn’t deter crime.

“The death penalty is unconstitutional,” he said. “We do not need to put somebody to death to protect society.”

Ticketing kids

Other topics included the profit motive behind mass incarceration and the public school system’s role in creating a “school-to-prison pipeline” by taking a zero tolerance policy stance on behavior that only a few years ago would have been deemed childish.

According to Gislaine Williams of the ACLU of Texas, talking back to a teacher or acting like the class clown could potentially be punished with a class-C misdemeanor.

“These kids are being ticketed for really discretionary things,” she said.

louis.casiano@chron.com