Freedom University Opens in Atlanta!

Who We Are:  Founded in 2011, Freedom University is embarking on its third year defending the human right to education in the state of Georgia. As we work to reverse discriminatory policies that ban undocumented students from Georgia’s top five public universities, we continue to provide a space where students can receive rigorous college-level instruction, regardless of their immigration status. Our classes include college-level coursework as well as mentorship programs that prepare students for the SAT and assist them with the college application process. This semester, we have moved the first course of the academic year from Athens, GA to the new Martin Luther King Sr. Community Resources Complex on the campus of the King Memorial Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Our new location has enabled us to reach a broader community of undocumented students in the Atlanta metro area and engage with a new and vibrant network of supporters. How We Are Making a Difference: Through our teaching and mentorship of undocumented youth in Georgia, we have successfully prepared our students for higher education and helped send them to colleges across the nation. Last year alone, we were able to secure full scholarships for six Freedom University graduates, who are now excelling in classrooms in Syracuse, Dartmouth, Whitman, and Tougaloo, among others. Through our leadership development and advocacy, we are cultivating a new generation of student leaders in the undocumented student movement and helping to build the groundswell of public consciousness and grassroots pressure that is needed to overturn discriminatory policies in higher education and hold the Georgia Board of Regents accountable to the demands of justice and equality. Fall 2013 Course:  This fall, we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mónica Díaz and Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, and Atlanta lawyers and educators Xochitl Bervera and Kung Li, on our teaching team. They join Dr. Pamela Voekel and an amazing staff of professors from the University of Georgia. We are also happy to welcome our new volunteer coordinator, Jeanette Cuevas. The first course of the semester is titled “Who Belongs Here? Race, Identity, and Social Movements in Mexico and the U.S. South.” With the generous support of donors and a partnership with Charis Books, students are reading Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Borderlands/La Frontera,” Jo Ann Robinson’s memoir, “Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It”, Doug McAdam’s “Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency,” and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.” Every class is filled with the energy of learning and empowerment, but last week in particular was a very special class. Following a lecture on student activism and freedom schools in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, we welcomed Charles A. Black and Constance Curry as guest speakers to our class. As a student leader at Morehouse College, Mr. Black served as the Chairman of the Atlanta Student Movement, a member organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), from 1961-1962. Ms. Curry served as the first white woman on the Executive Committee of the SNCC in the early 1960s and is the author of the award winning book, “Silver Rights.” Both were instrumental in drafting the Atlanta Student Movement’s “An Appeal for Human Rights” in March 1960, which addressed “inequalities and injustices in Atlanta and Georgia” including education, stating: “On the University level, the state will pay a Negro to attend a school out of state rather than admit him to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the Georgia Medical School, and other tax-supported public institutions… The publicly supported institutions of higher education are inter-racial now, except that they deny admission to Negro Americans.” These injustices are reflected in today’s ban of undocumented youth from Georgia colleges and universities. The classroom became an incredible space where we shared knowledge and love across generations and movements – and discussed issues of poverty, incarceration, and educational inequalities in black and brown communities – which deepened students’ consciousness of their place in a long history of human rights movements. After laughter, tears, and sharing stories, we closed the class singing freedom songs SNCC style – with arms crossed, swaying shoulder to shoulder with old and new friends. It was an historic moment at Freedom University, and one that reminded all of us that freedom is a constant struggle. Why You are Needed: Our commitment to defy the ban and provide undocumented students with quality education, college preparation, and a safe space to develop their leadership skills – at no charge to students – is made possible only with the generosity of Freedom University friends and supporters around the country and the world. Giving to Freedom University is much more than a donation – it is an investment in the lives of undocumented students and in the struggle for educational equality that they themselves will lead.