Nov. 1st, 8pm: MP's 3rd Annual Kellyoke Night @ The Gaslight

Here's the details...

The Mississippi Project's 3rd Annual
KELLY-OKE
Kelly’s KARAOKE NIGHT at the Gaslight

Date: Thursday, November 1st
Time: 8pm ‘til...
Cost: FREE -- No Cover!

Where: The Gaslight Bar in Sunnyside (43-17 Queens Blvd)

Directions: Take the #7 train to 40th St–Lowery. The Gaslight is just near the north-side subway entrance on Queens Blvd.)

Join us on Karaoke Night, buy a raffle ticket, and help support the 2007-2008 delegation as we work to promote justice in the Mississippi Delta this winter!

Raffle tickets are $1 each (or 6 for $5)

See you there!

ACLU of Mississippi is logged on!

ACLU of Mississippi's teen outreach has a new ally on MySpace!
Click here for more info: Miss. EC Education

Louisiana's Incarceration Rate "Highest in the World"

"...Louisiana has the fourth-highest rate of DNA exonerations in the country, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to freeing the wrongfully convicted.

Emily Maw, director of the New Orleans Innocence Project, said this is largely due to the state having the highest incarceration rate in the world as well as a broken indigent defense system.

The unwillingness of prosecutors to reconsider convictions despite mountains of contrary evidence is also a leading factor, she said.

Despite a confession from the guilty party, witnesses who backed Jackson’s claim that he was in Mississippi at the time of the crime, handwriting and medical experts who testified to his innocence, it wasn’t until the introduction of DNA evidence in 2005 that the courts and the Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick relented."

New Orleans CityBusiness, June 11, 2007

Full article: http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewStory.cfm?recID=19291

Gulf Coast Update (May '07)

Although New Orleans received far more media attention after Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi—by many measures the most impoverished state in the US—received the brunt of the storm damage. In the three hardest hit coastal counties, 64,000 homes were destroyed, and more than 70,000 received damage. Many of the poorest residents still have received no federal assistance, and tens of thousands remain spread across the U.S.

For those who have not returned to their homes, reports Monique Harden of the Gulf Coast organization Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, “displaced residents are subjected to a complex and historic interplay of race, class, and the lack of access to housing, healthcare, education, and economic opportunities.” In Gulf Coast cities, immigrants and other people of color have been for the most part left out of reconstruction funding, and for communities most affected by the storm, rebuilding seems to not be on the government agenda. Schools, health care, and criminal justice systems are in crisis.

“We had our ‘Ninth Ward’ in East Biloxi,” Jaribu Hill, executive director of the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights explains, referring to the poor, mostly African American and Vietnamese coastal community that was leveled by Katrina. “The government has been slow to clean up, slow to provide resources, slow to respond. Even now, people have yet to receive aid. Not only is there widespread poverty, there is widespread displacement.”

ColorLines Magazine, May/June 2007

Full article: http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=208

Support Justice in the Delta! How to Donate to the Mississippi Project

Tax-deductible donations are made easy by clicking here. You will be asked to enter your personal information. After you click "continue" you will see a drop down field marked "Designation." Please choose Mississippi Project from this list. Your donations are greatly appreciated and absolutely essential to our work in the delta.

Sixteen years ago, the Mississippi Project was founded by CUNY Law students who traveled to Mississippi to investigate the suspicious hangings of more than 50 African American men in a local jail. One of the project founders and CUNY Law alumna Jaribu Hill ’95 established the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights. Ms. Hill today represents workers who face exploitative working conditions and continues to this day as director of the Workers’ Center to host and mentor young law students as they pursue legal work to fight injustices.

Carrying on the spirit and mission of the Project, CUNY Law students spend their winter break working in partnership with the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, the ACLU of Mississippi, and the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO), located in Greenville, MS, Jackson, MS, and New Orleans, LA respectively. The Project not only gives law students an opportunity to gain experience, but also provides legally underserved populations in these communities with greater opportunities to access much-needed legal assistance.

Additionally, checks can be payable to: “CUNY Law Foundation” and include “Re: Mississippi Project” in the memo portion of your check. Checks should be mailed to:

Attn: Ms. Barbara Kopp
CUNY School of Law
Development Office, Room 200
65-21 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11367

Thank you for supporting the ongoing work of the Mississippi Project!