Campus Progress Holds Southern Conference at Morehouse
(APN) ATLANTA–Campus Progress held their first Southern Regional Conference at Morehouse College from February 06 to 08, 2009.
The conference included a journalism track and an activism track.
Activist workshops included such topics as using the media, getting elected, retaining members, and forming alliances.
The separate section on journalism centered on progressive journalism. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, a syndicated radio program, was a keynote speaker. Panelists represented such publications as the Nation magazine, the Wall Street Journal newspaper, the Atlantic magazine, and others.
The conference expected to accommodate around 200 students and about 300 attended, Erika Williams, National Policy and Advocacy Director for Campus Progress, said.
“Last year we did a regional conference that was journalism only. This is our first regional conference that included activism,” Williams said.
Atlanta was chosen as the location of the conference because the most rapid change is happening in the South, Williams said.
Campus Progress, the college student-focused wing of the Center for American Progress (CAP), funds progressive student publications on college campuses throughout the US.
CAP was started a few years ago as a somewhat establishment, progressive think tank in Washington, DC, in order to counter the influence of right-wing think tanks which Republicans have developed in recent decades.
Jenna Shweitzer, 19, of Emory University recently put out the first issue of a Campus Progress-funded progressive magazine called Generation Response.
Another group of students run a progressive publication at University of Georgia, Athens, called Stand Up.
Each of these publications receives about $2000 per year.
Campus Progress also funds “activist grants for projects, to bring in speakers, film screenings, stuff like that,” Singal told Atlanta Progressive News.
The Progressive Movement in the US South is often underestimated in a region best known for its Bible Belt Conservatism.
Overall 44% of Southerners voted Democratic in the last election. Obama won the votes of 39% of among voters in Alabama, 47% in Georgia, 43% of Mississippi, 40% of Louisiana, 50% of North Carolina, 45% of South Carolina, and 42% of Tennessee, according to CNN election center results.
Campus Progress feels that the key to getting these numbers higher and making the South more amenable to progressive thought lies in organizing students.
“We feel like this event was a really good way to draw attention to the Progressive Movement in the South which isn’t always the most well-represented area. More important than that it is a way to bring people together from all different issue areas,” Jesse Singal, 25, Associate Editor of the online magazine Campus Progress, said.
Students representing various organizations came from all over the South including Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas [which was apparently considered part of the South].
The local activist community seemed to be under-represented, however. Local activist organizations and local representatives of chapters of national organizations were not well-integrated with this event, which involved primarily college organizations and Campus Progress staff from Washington, DC.
Local speakers like Mia Mingus of SPARK Reproductive Justice and State Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan were the exception.
Often students came to the conference to find out how to continue the Progressive Movement in colleges where the Conservative-leaning staff is frequently unsupportive, as is the local community. The progressive student organizations do not have access to the emotional support nor the funds of their counterparts in the US North, Williams stated.
“The reason I am particularly involved with Campus Progress is that students who are progressives don’t have a lot of resources on a Conservative campus. We need to find external sources and Campus Progress provides that,” Nick da Pampa, 23, a veterinary student and President of the Spectrum Alliance at Auburn University, said.
Students all stated they got something they needed out of the conference. Some were seeking the mutual support of alliances with other organizations.
“Climate change is really an issue that is affecting people who are contributing the least to it. Poor people, people of color are the people who are going to be affected the most. We are part of an organization called the energy action coalition. We bring together 50 groups building the grassroots movement against climate change,” Tommaso Boggia, 22, of Campus Progress Magazine, said.
Others wanted to learn what activism and lobbying were about. “I saw what I didn’t know. The first part of learning is, knowing what you don’t know,” Joseph Reddicks, a Morehouse Junior in premedical studies, said.
Those attending the conference had no lack of passion about their organizations which ranged from homosexual rights, the environment, and nonviolence, to the legalization of marijuana.
“If we can get one kid the resources they need to put together a publication we are a success. It is less about us than it is about a lot of very talented kids. It is about making connections,” Singal said.
About the author:
Alice Gordon is a Staff Writer for The Atlanta Progressive News, and is reachable is alice@atlantaprogressivenews.com.
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