National Focus – Civil Rights Restitution & Economic Reform

2. National Focus – Civil Rights Restitution & Economic Reform Political Target: Occupy and Reclaim 40 Acres of Land taken by Eminent Domain to build Allen Parkway Village – national landmark of military history, public housing reform, and Civil Rights in the heart of Freedmen’s Town – and the Federal Reserve built next door. Historic and Political Significance: Both APV and the Federal Reserve were built on the site of desecrated gravesites and historic buildings demolished by conflicts of private interests with Government, despite public petitions and protests to preserve the remaining history of Freedmen’s Town. This national historic district is the last settlement of its kind left in America -- including 10 African American churches and hand-laid brick streets built by Freed Slave using their own labor and resources 100 years before the Civil Rights Act, which Government continues to violate by lack of equal legal protections.

3. National Focus – Civil Rights Restitution & Economic Reform 1930s-40s: Eminent Domain was abused to seize 37 acres of private homes and businesses, including historic burials. 8 Black Families contested to the Supreme Court but lost their land. APV public housing was originally built to serve military families, excluding Blacks until the Civil Rights Act ended segregation and the local community continued to fight for equal inclusion in public housing and representation. 1980s-1990s: Lenwood Johnson founded the APV Resident Council, passing landmark federal laws to protect tenants’ rights to democratically elected representatives and plans to reform public housing as a sustainable campus model. [Please see “APV Campus Principles” and “APV Campus Plan”.] 1996: Federal Authority was abused to evict the APV Resident Council, without legal representation or appeal due to lack of resources, censoring the residents’ right to assemble and to petition to enforce federal laws protecting community plans for preserving all 1000 units on site as a sustainable community campus. 2006: Lenwood Johnson was finally relocated back into the Freedmen’s Town community, after 10 years of being unable to organize to stop the demolition and destruction of historic houses, buildings, and burials. Government abuse of eviction to remove low-income residents, scatter them citywide, and close their community building, instead of replacing access under federal laws, obstructed them from assembling collectively to defend their rights, plans and interests as a community, censoring their “inalienable” Civil Rights under the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment.

4. Additional Proposal on Federal Reserve Reforms: Proposal to head a national legal team and task force to: • Assess debts owed to taxpayers by public funds and authority abused for private interests at the expense of irreplaceable national historic value and damages to affected community residents denied equal representation and democratic due process. • Issue federal reparations notes against these debts, using the value of historic property and preservation costs as collateral to back historic bonds, using this currency to manage microloans to finance jobs, housing and reform programs under APV campus plans that were unlawfully censored by abuse by federal and city government. • Selling bonds to citizens to invest as equal shareholders in the Freedmen’s Town historic property and programs, to start a microcredit system for financing reparations for government wrongdoing and corporation corruption (lending against these debts while holding wrongdoers responsible for paying back the taxpayers) [Notes: Using Ithaca HOURS as a model for local currency, and Grameen Bank for microcredit, business management and training]

5. State Focus – Church and Military History Political History of Civil Wrongs and Oppression in Freedmen’s Town: • Founding of Freedmen’s Town by Freed Slaves historically excluded by segregation from equal citizenship, representation, and protection of the laws • Abusing eminent domain to seize and destroy property against owner consent; destroying historic burials, churches, houses, streets and landmarks despite public petitions and protests to preserve irreplaceable national history • Oppression of democratic due process, lack of equal representation and legal defense, censorship of community plans under federal laws, by exclusion and eviction of residents, and failure to enforce HUD subgrants requiring community participation in all phases and replacing any lost access to resources in the process • Lack of housing for Vets, although APV was built as a military site; lack of recognition of other military history in Freedmen’s Town -- including the Camp Logan Riots and the Civil War burials in the area The continuing history of civil conflict and oppression has been caused by unequal legal defense based on property rights, since corporate developers have greater access to legal resources and leverage to defend their interests, in comparison with interests in historic preservation and low-income communities denied equal protection of the law.

6. State Focus – Church and Military History Solution Proposed: Help Church and Vet Groups purchase and restore the last block of row houses left in the Freedmen’s Town district (and develop the surrounding lots, to integrate commercial and residential property within an educational program) • To create jobs and housing for Vets while restoring a national historic district. • As restitution for Civil Rights Violations and Abuses in Freedmen’s Town that represent similar issues in all cities and communities (and proposed solutions as a model nationwide) • As a tribute to the 10 Articles of the Bill of Rights and Code of Ethics violated by government abuses; to honor police and military sworn to uphold the Constitution; and to promote public enforcement of these Constitutional standards to resolve conflicts and prevent oppression. [See Code of Ethics for Government Service at ethics-commission.net] • To promote the 10 remaining historic churches in Freedmen’s Town, with each Church adopting one house and one Veteran to sponsor, in collecting and managing donations to cover the costs, so that all participants benefit from the educational housing program. • To help teams of Vets and Churches invest in a land trust to restore historic houses and to create an EDUCATIONAL program to teach rental property management and development to members of low-income communities, starting with Vets, in order to break the poverty cycle causing oppression, while generating sustainable income for historic church preservation. The campaign to OCCUPY VICTOR STREET is a national model to OCCUPY VET HOUSING.

7. Local Participation – Media Outreach and Music Production Like diverse experiences and political conflicts in all communities, there are multiple Civiclessons to be learned from Freedmen’s Town history. The message and accounts have traditionally been shared by personal testimonials, oral history, poetry and song. Music and media outreach is critical for public participation, especially among youth, in civil rights reforms and education, and thus requires access to facilities and training. [Please see example rap on Civil Rights, for a contest to create an educational video] Proposed Focus: To organize local activists, artists, and athletes in teams to build a central Youth Center in Freedmen’s Town for business training in Music Production and other activities. Money raised by music events and production, including video contests, can be used to donate or invest in the Vet Housing and other educational facilities on Victor Street. [NOTE: The current Youth Center proposal is for land already purchased by the Freedmen’s Town CDC at 1401 Andrews at Wilson; if more space is needed, plans can be expanded and combined to purchase and develop additional facilities on the lots on Victor Street surrounding proposed site for Vet Housing. Please see grant proposals for 1401 Andrews, Vet Housing, and example of mixed use in an educational program.]