Institute for Common Power

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Institute for Common Power is affiliated with Common Power.

Terry Anne Scott is the Director, The Institute for Common Power

Target Florida

Common Power held a "24 Hour Teach Ins" on May 17, 2023. The event was discussed by Kellie Carter Jackson in an OpEd published at CNN.

Excerpt:

This week I’m traveling to St. Petersburg, Florida, to participate in a 24-hour teach-in for American democracy created by Common Power, an institute committed to fostering, sustaining and expanding voting and education.

The goal of the event is to confront the political assault on Florida’s educational system by teaching truthful history and providing education on voter suppression and voter empowerment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken the lead on demolishing what he deems as “woke” culture propaganda. He and Florida lawmakers are threatening tenure in higher education, seeking to ban women and gender studies and other LGBTQ programs.

Scholars and educators are terrified that the GOP will severely undermine the academic freedom to write, speak and research without the risk of losing one’s livelihood. Other states are following Florida in a terrifying game of “Simon Says” that reflects a desire to roll back or restrict civil liberties...

From the archived invitation:

TRUTH IN EDUCATION: A 24-Hour Teach-In for American

We are going to Florida! Join us via zoom!

Objectives

1. Confront, through direct action, the assault on truth in Florida and beyond

2 . Teach truthful history

3 Provide education on voter suppression and voter empowerment

24 Hours of scholars, activists, and more teaching us why and how truthful history matters!

6 pm EDT May 17 to 6 pm EDT May 18

We are confronted today in America by an attack on truth in education. It is an attempt by politically motivated individuals, government offices, and politicians to halt the full teaching of American life by eradicating terrible and painful, but fully truthful, aspects of our past, present, and potential futures. At their core, such attacks seek to erase the triumphs of African Americans, women, LGBTQ+ Americans, and others who have been vital in the struggle for civil rights and voting justice. The Institute for Common Power cannot and will not idly watch. This 24-hour teach-in is a public statement that truth in education is not optional. It is essential, and it is the only way forward for American democracy.

This event is free, will be on zoom, and will be 24 hours of live teaching and education from experts and leaders who have learned, have lived, and are undaunted by the full truth of American life. We will include presentations from multiple locations around the United States, including the first three hours from a church in St. Petersburg FL. Florida is at the epicenter of attempting to silence truth in education, and we intentionally begin in the state.

The organizing arm for this teach-in is the Institute for Common Power, headed by Dr. Terry Anne Scott.

This teach-in is intentionally set for the anniversary date of the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, in 1954.

Speakers and presenters will include Dr. Scott, Dr. Yohuru Williams of St. Thomas University, Dr. Hasan Jeffries of The Ohio State University, David Domke of the Institute for Common Power, and many others to be added. This is a moment of public declaration about the importance, the vitality, the essentiality, of facing the hard truths of American life. As educators, we will teach them.

Institute for Common Power

Common Power Logo

Institute for Common Power is the Common Power "organizing arm". According to their "vision," the Institute for Common Power "is devoted to education as a foundation to voting justice and inclusive democracy in the United States".

From the Institute for Common Power website:

The Institute for Common Power provides education that fosters, sustains, and expands what should be the most common power in American democracy: the right to vote. Ensuring a vote for all is essential to dismantling systems of injustice and creating equitable healthcare, living wages, decent housing, affordable education, and so much more. Voting has always been contested in America, and today this foundational democratic power is under assault–especially for communities of color. The Institute for Common Power is devoted to education as a foundation to voting justice and inclusive democracy in the United States.

Education to Action!

Also:

"The Institute for Common Power partners with teachers, tutors, curriculum specialists, organizational foundations, and school system leaders across the country to provide an experiential learning opportunity for educators in the long historical arcs of Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and the African American experience in America..."

Launch June 3, 2022

Launch Party Institute for Common Power

Institute for Common Power was launched in June 3, 2022.

This event will highlight the transformative community engagement actions of current and former professional athletes, as well as others who work in athletics. Their work in local communities pose a fundamental model to all: use whatever platform you have to create change for the most marginalized among us.

Each person on the panel will discuss the work they are doing to create change and extend opportunities to those in need. The event will be hosted by Dr. Terry Scott, an award-winning professor at Hood College, expert on US race relations and history, and incoming Director of the Institute for Common Power. Panelists will be former UW men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar; NFL football player John Ross; Seattle Seahawks Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Karen Wilkins-Mickey; former Major League Soccer player Tony Sanneh; and former NFL player Marcus Trufant.

The evening’s conversation will highlight how these individuals and their organizations have chosen to use their platforms and stand together with so many others in the long movement for social change. Those who have risked much for the cause of liberty, of justice, to force a nation to confront its reality and to make the words written in the founding documents apply to all demonstrate that nothing is impossible. Such actions will carry us to the creation of a world of parity, a world where we honor difference and reject injustice, a world of possibility. All proceeds will support the work of the Institute for Common Power.