State of the Black World Conference III to convene at Howard University November 14-18

State of Emergency in Black America: Time to Heal Black Families and Communities

 

November 14-18, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century will convene State of the Black World Conference III at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Ronald Walters and featuring the launch of the Damu Smith Leadership Development and Organizer Training Institute, and organized around the theme State of Emergency in Black America: Time to Heal Black Families and Communities, the conference will address and seek to prescribe solutions for the alarming disinvestment, joblessness, gentrification, devastation, disorientation, crime violence, fratricide, racially biased drug and criminal justice policies and mass incarceration in America’s “dark ghettos”

Speakers, panelists, and resource people will present assessments of the “state of the race,” including the impact of the 2012 Presidential Election and offer suggestions/recommendations about how to move forward. Our goal is always to provide participants with analyses of the problems/issues we face as black people but, most importantly, useful information, strategies and models to address our condition and the inspiration to continue the struggle for Black progress. Resource people, panelists and participants will be asked to outline solutions/strategies for action to heal black families and communities in terms of what we as African people must do for ourselves, what we should demand of private sector institutions and what we should demand of government in critical areas , e.g., the Black family, education, economic/business development, health/environment, Black youth/young people, criminal justice, policy toward Africa and the Caribbean. The composite recommendations from the Working Sessions in these areas will comprise a Declaration of Intent to Heal Black Families and Communities, an action-agenda to be implemented collectivelyby organizations, institutions and agencies participating in this great gathering with IBW as the Resource Center.

A State of Emergency dictates that those who are affected act with a sense of urgency. It is with this sense of urgency that IBW calls upon our many friends, supporters and allies to join the mobilization to make this great gathering possible. IBW will not have large foundation grants or substantial corporation sponsorships to finance this effort. Achieving success will require the combined energy and effort of those who believe that there is a State of Emergency in Black America and are passionately committed to healing Black families and communities – a determined mobilization by like-minded people joining hands to ensure that “we shall overcome!” It is in that spirit and with that assurance, that we move forward, confident that State of the Black World Conference III will be one of the greatest gatherings of the 21st Century.

Yours in the struggle,

Dr. Ron Daniels