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Democracy and Politics Public Square Amplified team Democracy and Politics Public Square Amplified team

Activists in coalition ringing the bell for human rights: "We Won't Go Back!"

On Sunday, in celebration of the 94th birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the People's Organization for Progress (P.O.P) led its annual "MLK March," in activist-coalition form and style. P.O.P representatives say the forces of racism, white supremacy, and fascism seek to drag us back to the pre-Civil Rights era, but this year, they’re saying: “We won’t go back!”

"I believe in what Dr. King stood for and that there is much more work to be done,” said Tyrone Lockett, an activist from Newark, NJ. “I am here to honor him and the ancestors who came before us because of what they went through in the fight to live a free and decent life."

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Democracy and Politics Esther Paul Democracy and Politics Esther Paul

“We are because I am”-Why Cuqui Rivera marches

As a Community DJ, Cuqui Rivera isn't comfortable in front of a room, but she's been forced to become accustomed to being at the frontlines. Rivera, the founder of the Latina Action Network and New Jersey Prison Justice Watch, is a community organizer and Civil Rights advocate. As she's evolved over the years, she said she's come to understand that rallies and activism have purposes. For her, a huge part of it is unity.

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Democracy and Politics Esther Paul Democracy and Politics Esther Paul

“It’s about change”- Why Matt Dragon marches

Matt Dragon used to question the impact of rallies—is it “letting people off the hook by giving them this thing that lets them feel good, but not actually accomplishing anything?” wondered Dragon, Co-chair of Our Revolution, Essex County. One particular rally, the Justice for Carl Dorsey March in Newark, N.J., answered his question. After hearing from the family members and the solace they felt from seeing people show up in numbers, Dragon understood that something bigger came out of rallies, whether it was inspiring people or having laws changed. For this reason, he shows up and believes others should too.

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Democracy and Politics Esther Paul Democracy and Politics Esther Paul

“A calling”—Why Kevin Pierre marches

Some are called to sing, others to preach, but Kevin Pierre’s calling is standing up for the people he calls “the least among us.” Pierre, 47, is Tri-Chair of the New Jersey Poor People’s Campaign, or NJPPC, an organization he joined in the fall of 2018 because he saw too many people who did not reach full potential because of their economic situations.

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Democracy and Politics Zoe Van Gelder Democracy and Politics Zoe Van Gelder

As Election Day approaches, Jersey City high schoolers have something to say

Will young New Jersey voters cast ballots in the midterms on Tuesday? If recent elections are the measure, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” According to the Center for Information & Research on Civil Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, the number of young voters in New Jersey between 18 and 24 grew 16 percent in the last four years. In 2020, the state had the highest youth voter turnout in the country—an impressive 67%. Nationwide, half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the 2020 general election, “one of the highest youth voting rates in recent history and an 11-point increase from 2016,” according to CIRCLE. Racially diverse states can impact voting.

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Democracy and Politics Lawrence Hamm Democracy and Politics Lawrence Hamm

In Defense of the Right to Protest

Lawrence Hamm’s life links the most powerful social movements of the last 50 years. Appointed to the Newark, New Jersey Board of Education in 1971 at the age of 17, he balanced the radical world of Newark’s Black Power Movement with a racially-divided city’s practical public policy concerns. What were his rewards? Harsh criticism in the press, dropping out of Princeton University, being publicly attacked by the man who appointed him—Kenneth Gibson, Newark’s first Black mayor—and an attempted framing on a gun he never had.

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