Democracy & Civil Society
Resist / Imagine / Organize
Dangerous global trends towards tyranny and the fractured state of democracy in the United States requires a robust and resilient civil society in order to protect, promote and extend freedom and dignity.
Human Rights Day 2017 focused on the opportunities for civil society to resist, imagine, and organize in pursuit of a more just society on the basis of civil liberties and universal human rights principles.
Featured Speakers
Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation's premier defender of liberty and individual freedom. An attorney with a history of public-interest activism, Romero has presided over the most successful membership growth in the ACLU's history and a large increase in national and affiliate staff. This extraordinary growth has allowed the ACLU to expand its nationwide litigation, lobbying, advocacy, and public education programs.
Leah Hunt-Hendrix is the co-founder and Executive Director of Solidaire, a donor community dedicated to funding progressive social movements. She has her PhD from Princeton University, where she studied political theory and philosophy, and wrote a dissertation on the concept of solidarity. The focus of her work is on progressive political power, economic justice and racial justice. She is from New York, and has lived around the world, including in Egypt, Syria, and the West Bank. She currently lives in San Francisco.
Desmond Meade is a formerly homeless returning citizen who overcame many obstacles to eventually become the former State Director for Florida Live Free Campaign, President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), Chair of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, Chair of the Florida Coalition on Black Civic Participation’s Black Men’s Roundtable, and a graduate of Florida International University College of Law.
Leah Greenberg is Co-Executive Director of the Indivisible Project and co-author of Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda. She previously served as Policy Director for the Tom Perriello for Governor of Virginia campaign, managed a public-private partnership on human trafficking, served as an Advisor to the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, coordinated interagency engagement for the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and worked on the Hill for Congressman Tom Perriello.
Moderator: Glen Galaich is the CEO of the Stupski Foundation and is responsible for leading the overall strategy of the Foundation as well as overseeing the programmatic focus areas and operations of the Foundation. Glen previously served as Chief Executive Officer of The Philanthropy Workshop, whose mission was to educate, inspire, and activate a peer network of effective, engaged, and innovative philanthropists.
Moderator: Randy Newcomb
Randy Newcomb is the President and CEO of Humanity United. He leads all aspects of Humanity United’s strategic planning, development, and operations. He works closely with the organization’s founders and Board of Trustees to ensure that HU achieves its long-term mission and strategic objectives.
Event Images
Resources
ACLU
The ACLU takes a historical look at the First Amendment right to demonstrate and its use in the Bay Area in the 1960s.
The Great Civil Society Choke-Out
Foreign Policy
Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, examines the global rise in government’s efforts to suppress civil society and the potential consequences for democracy.
The Nation
Leaders in philanthropy respond to the following questions: How does a 21st-century philanthropy contend with the economic system that both produces its conditions of possibility and makes its lofty aspirations necessary? Should it address the structural inequality of which it is a symptom—and if so, how?
Waiting For A Perfect Protest?
The New York Times
Media outlets and commentators representing a range of political persuasions have called attention to recent outbreaks of violence in Berkeley, Calif., Boston and other locations where anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstrators have gathered.
The Atlantic
Although the office of the President of the United States has always existed in a shadow of white domination, it has never been quite so tainted as it is today. In his essay, Coates analyzes both the subtle and blatant ways the Trump Administration has brought white supremacy to the White House.
People Are In The Streets Protesting Donald Trump. But When Does Protest Actually Work?
The Washington Post
IAs we see an increase in the use of protests as acts of resistance, Chenoweth identifies the key characteristics of effective and impactful demonstrations to enact change.
Partners
Special Thanks to Our Advisory Committee
Jessie Brunner, Scott Campbell, Jennifer Davis, Natasha Dolby, Will Fitzpatrick, Glen Galaich, Liliana Giffen, Jen Haile, Renee Kaplan, Randy Newcomb, Amanda Padilla, Stephanie Seale, Abdi Soltani, and Eric Stover.