Melissa Bailey/ Jacob Cohn Photos
Lula Mae White risked jail 50 years ago when she rode Southern buses to promote integration. Lorella Praeli “came out of the shadows” this past year to help fellow undocumented immigrants make it to college. The two New Haven activists will share a stage to share their experiences — and explore the dream (or DREAM) the two student civil-rights struggles pursued a half-century apart.
Praeli (pictured above at left), White (at right), and other activists from two chapters in America’s civil rights history will participate in a multimedia panel called “Freedom Riders.” You can participate too.
The event takes place at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School (corner of College and Crown) Tuesday beginning at 6:30 p.m.
White, a retired New Haven schoolteacher, and Lenora Taitt-Magubane, of New York City and South Africa, will represent the “Freedom Riders.” They were among the interracial group of students who risked their lives by traveling through the Deep South together on interstate buses in 1961 in order to integrate bus stations, including waiting rooms, lunch counters and bathrooms. They were beaten and jailed; White landed in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman prison. They also succeeded in their quest, and made history. (Click here to read more about White’s experiences.)
Praeli, an undocumented student from Peru who just completed Quinnipiac University, will be accompanied at Tuesday’s panel by Lucas Codognolla, an undocumented student currently at University of New Haven. They were among the students who risked their stay in this country by organizing for the passage of Connecticut’s version of the DREAM Act, which enables in-state children of undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state college tuition rates. They succeeded in their quest, and made history, when Gov. Malloy signed the DREAM Act into law this summer. (Click here, here, and here to read about that.)
Is the DREAM Act fight — which continues nationwide — a successor to the Freedom Rides of 1961?
As panelists discuss that question Tuesday night, a separate panel of reporters — from the Independent, New Haven Register, and La Voz Hispana — will weigh in. You can, too. That discussion will take the form of a live-blog event. Those in the audience can jump into the discussion from laptops or smart phones. If you’re at home, you can watch a live video stream of the main panel discussion online courtesy of the Register and add your thoughts to the live-blog discussion as well.
The event was organized and sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Firelight Media. The organizers are also screening a documentary about the 1961 actions, called “Freedom Riders,” Monday night at Co-Op at 6:30 p.m. If you’d rather watch it at home, on your computer, you can view the film here.
Local groups co-sponsoring Tuesday night’s panel include Junta for Progressive Action, Unidad Latina en Accion, ElmSeed Enterprise Fund, New Haven People’s Center, MEChA, Black Student Alliance at Yale, Connecticut Students for a DREAM, Yale Women’s Center, Jews for Justice, Yale Black Women’s Coalition, and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association.
