Project Description
Because “liberty and justice for all” is still a dream, not a reality. Because people of color are disproportionately imprisoned in the United States, and our country makes up 25% of the world’s imprisoned population. Because our children and brothers and sisters are forced to attend inadequate schools. Because a college education has become a privilege for the wealthy. Because our LGBTQ citizens still face discrimination in the street and the workplace. Because women still face unequal pay. Because the American dream is just a dream deferred. For too long, those who don’t wish to see us succeed have kept us divided. They break us down into simple categories – women, LGBTQ , the Black vote, the Latino vote, people of color, the poor, the sick. This year, we merge into one voting bloc and reclaim our power. Join us by pledging to vote in 2014.
PLEASE COMPLETE THE SURVEY AND JOIN OUR BLOC OF VOTERS THROUGHOUT THE STATE OF FLORIDA AND AMERICA.
Dream Defenders Across Florida Launch Summer Voter Mobilization Project In Lead Up to 2014 Election.
Dream Defenders commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement’s 1964 Freedom Summer with a Multi-county Voter Awareness and Education Campaign.
Fourteen BLOC leaders – representing Miami-Dade, Broward, Duval, Leon, Volusia, Orange, Hillsborough, Polk, and Alachua Counties – will be building in their local communities to strategically engage and unite youth and other marginalized voters. This voting “BLOC” will represent a diverse and united front of individuals and communities whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by Florida’s political trajectory.
“There’s a new voting BLOC emerging out of the ashes of a politically decrepit America,” said Phillip Agnew, Executive Director of Dream Defenders. “People of color, the poor, the LGBTQ community, women, teachers, parents, working families, students – for too long, have been kept divided. It’s time to act on the power in our numbers and build an America that embodies the values it claims to promote: liberty, equality, and justice.”
“Too much is at stake for people of color in Florida this summer,” said Curtis Hierro, Field Director for Dream Defenders. “Our communities are being torn apart by policies that criminalize youth, degrade public education, privatize prisons, and more. By voting, young people have the opportunity to challenge the status quo and demand better for ourselves, for our families, and for our future.”
Dream Defenders’ summer project will honor the fiftieth anniversary of 1964 Freedom Summer, when civil rights activists from across the country risked their lives to converge in Mississippi and register Black voters in the heart of the Jim Crow South. BLOC leaders will host 1964-style Freedom Schools in multiple Florida counties, focusing on voter mobilization and community power-building.
For more on the BLOC Is Ours program, the BLOC leaders, and to sign the Florida Dream Pledge, check the BLOC is Ours webpage.
