On March 7, Reverend Hosea Williams and John Lewis stepped from the pulpit of Brown Chapel Church and led a group of 600 toward Montgomery. After just six blocks, when they crossed the now infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River, Sheriff Jimmy Clark’s deputies and state troopers dispatched by Gov. Wallace attacked the group with nightsticks and tear gas, injuring dozens. The violence stopped the marchers’ first attempt, but they would not be silenced or stopped for good.

The event came to be known as “BLOODY SUNDAY”. Two weeks later, under the protection of Alabama National Guardsmen and Army troops, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set off again from Selma and marched 54 miles along U.S. Hwy. 80 to Montgomery.

At 1:25 pm on March 25, 1965, the crowd then gathered without incident in front of the Alabama state capitol and by that time was 25,000 strong.

Not long after, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

The March continues. Civil Rights of 50 years ago and today provide moving examples of what ordinary people can do.

An opportunity to participate in a re-creation of the March on Selma

The Round Rock Black History Organization commemorates the 50th anniversary of the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, with an afternoon of activities. Guests or congregations are invited to participate in an afternoon of activities commemorating this historic event, which took place in 1965.

The Mays Street bridge will be closed for the duration of the march. The march will begin at noon and proceed onto Main Street and into Sharon Prete Plaza. After arriving at Prete Plaza, the program portion of the afternoon will include the reading of a mayoral proclamation in recognition of the event and voter registration.

Members of the community can also share their personal memories of Bloody Sunday. A keynote speech on the marches is offered by Dr. Calvin Kelly from St. Edward’s University. The worship portion of the program features Sweet Home the Pinnacle of Praise’s Voices of Worship choir. Following the choir’s performance, Pastor Keith Ferguson from City View Bible Church provides words of encouragement and reflection. The program closes with a performance by the Round Rock Ballet Folklorico.

For more information contact Bobby Sams, 512-671-3345 or bobbysams@prodigy.net.

President Barack Obama and Former President George W. Bush will join in the reenactment of the March on Selma on March 7 for the 50th anniversary of the voting rights marches.

Bush and his wife, Laura, will join a large, bipartisan congressional delegation for part of a three-day civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama, according to Robert Traynham, a spokesman for the Faith and Politics Institute in Washington, which is organizing the event.

The Faith and Politics Institute, a bipartisan, interfaith nonprofit focused on racial and political reconciliation in Congress, has organized the pilgrimage every year since 1998.

Lyndon B. Johnson Library (LBJ);  2313 RED RIVER ST, Austin, Texas 78705

In honor of Black History Month, a new exhibit by UT Austin’s Briscoe Center and the LBJ Presidential Library celebrates the 50th anniversaries of the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“March to Freedom” features rare photographs of the “Bloody Sunday” Selma-to-Montgomery march (March 7, 1965), documents, quotes, and images that celebrate subsequent marches, and photos from the LBJ Library’s 2014 Civil Rights Summit.

Through the words of Congressman John Lewis, former head of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and through the camera of James “Spider” Martin, “March to Freedom” follows a determined and undaunted group of marchers, both black and white, as they try on three different occasions to take their cause to Montgomery and the steps of the Alabama Statehouse.

Their peaceful demonstrations attracted media coverage, particularly when they were met with violent opposition, which helped garner the support necessary for the passage of voting rights legislation. The Selma-to-Montgomery marches for voting rights represent the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement, which opened the door for the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.

 Texans deserve health insurance. 

More than 6 million Texans are uninsured, the highest rate in the U.S. But what did Texas’ elected officials do when they had a chance to cover uninsured Texans? They refused and turned their backs on more than 2 million hard-working Texans and left $100 billion of our tax dollars going to other states. In the 2 million, state politicians abandoned veterans and their spouses, workers in retail, construction, child care, hospitality, healthcare and food service. NOW is the time to rally together and fight for the health coverage millions of Texans deserve!

The goal of the day will be to bring a public, statewide voice to the Capitol regarding the need to close the Coverage Gap for low-income workers, caretakers, college students and Texans living with disabilities.

Meet at the state Capitol at 10:00 am on March 12 and finish at 3:30 pm. Register here if you plan on attending, or would like to get involved.

http://www.covertexasnow.org/content/about-cover-texas-now

First UMC Family Life Center – 1300 Lavaca St

11:00am – 4:00pm

Equality Texas invites you to participate in YOUR government and to come to Austin on Monday, April 13, to meet face-to-face with those who represent YOU and talk to them about how the freedoms we value as Texans are affected by discrimination in based on bias against sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

Advanced registration is required in order to prepare constituent-matched materials and make strategic lobbying team assignments. Equality Texas will provide lunch.

If your organization would like to partner with Equality Texas for Freedom Advocacy Day please contact DanielWilliams@EqualityTexas.org.

Austin Interfaith Environmental Network  Presents
“Food, Faith & Climate”
Thursday, March 12

 Our Spring, 2015 Symposium Series Begins March 12^th. Join us for this first of four monthly symposiums as we focus on the connections between our food, our faith, and our climate. Kicking us off will be Dr. Molly Jensen, Assistant Professor of Religion at Southwestern University; and Edwin Marty, City of Austin’s new Food Policy Manager.

Dr. Jensen will guide us in making the connections between food, faith and climate as it relates to Lent, a season of prayerful observation preceding Easter. She will include a discussion of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Native American indigenous traditions in addition to Christianity.

Mr. Edwin Marty will emphasize the food and climate change connection based on his work at the Office of Sustainability.

Feel free to come at 6:30pm (before the symposium begins at 7pm) for a tour of the Third Day Community Garden on the grounds of The Sanctuary – located at 2614 Exposition Blvd., Austin, TX 78703.

IEN’s mission is: “Inspiring and assisting Austin’s religious communities to lead the effort to care for the earth and to transform ways of life that cause climate change.”

For much more about IEN, including beautiful video of our recent Clergy Climate Preach-In 2015, visit http://www.interfaithenvironment.org/.

Join the conversation about the work of JFON to address these justice issues and find out what we all can do as people of faith.

______________________________________________________

Help for unaccompanied migrant children

Faith in Action, GBCS

February 10, 2015

Austin Region Justice for Our Neighbors Receives Grant from UMCOR

(Photo www.townhall.com)

AUSTIN, Texas — In June 2014, the number of unaccompanied children (UAC) apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border reached its highest level to date: 10,622 in one month. After spending weeks in a government-approved shelter, most would be released to live with family members in the United States. While striving to adjust to their new lives, new schools and new friends, these children also had to cope with their grueling and interminable deportation proceedings.

Approximately 350 of these unaccompanied children were sent to live with relatives here. Many of them were fleeing horrific gang violence or family abuse. If deported back to Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala, they would face torture, brutality, even death. These children needed help. They needed advocates. Most of all, they needed good lawyers.

Without legal representation, unaccompanied children have little hope for a happy ending to their story. Those fortunate enough to have attorneys are nearly five times more likely to be allowed to stay legally in the United States than those without.

Enter Austin Justice For Our Neighbors (ARJFON), which announced its intention to focus on UAC cases in July. It was a logical and natural step for them, explains Julie Flanders, ARJFON’s legal director, as so many of their cases “involve women and children who have suffered abuses, making them eligible for special protections.”

Julie herself has a strong background in representing unaccompanied children, and she has spent a significant amount of time at the border, developing relationships with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, with other immigrant aid groups, and with all the major players in the UAC crisis. “I knew exactly what needed to be done,” Flanders says. “We just didn’t have enough attorneys to do it.”

Enter the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which offered a $100,000 grant to National Justice For Our Neighbors. In partnership with a JFON site, the grant would address the need for legal representation for unaccompanied children. But, first, NJFON and ARJFON had to write the proposal.

Thanks to UMCOR, Austin JFON now has a new attorney, Rebecca Rosenberg, to focus entirely on its UAC program. ARJFON also has a new community liaison/legal assistant, Piper Madison. Due to the partnership with UMCOR and NJFON, Austin JFON is now in the position to become a leading voice in UAC legal representation, not just for the JFON network, but for the immigrant legal aid community.

Read the complete story here: http://umc-gbcs.org/faith-in-action/help-for-unaccompanied-migrant-children

Red Bench: Legacy

Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 6:30pm-8:30pm

Topic: Legacy

Location: Congregation Agudas Achim

(7300 Hart Lane, Austin, TX)

Hope Awards

iACT’s Hope Awards

“Forgiveness through Faith”

Tuesday, May 5, 2015
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Four Seasons Hotel Austin
98 San Jacinto Boulevard

The Hope Awards provides support for iACT’s outstanding community service programs. Hands on Housing repairs the homes of impoverished seniors and people with disabilities. iACT for Refugees provides basic educational assistance to newly arrived refugees from around the world. The Red Bench dialogue program encourages meaningful conversations that matter.

We will honor Michael Morton, who was wrongfully convicted in 1987 in a Williamson County court for the brutal murder of his wife. His faith gave him the strength to endure hardship and the mercy to forgive.

Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he had years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he was virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spent years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene.

He was exonerated by DNA evidence which supported his claim of innocence and pointed to the crime being committed by another individual. Morton was released from prison on October 4, 2011, and the prosecutor was convicted of contempt of court for withholding evidence after the judge had ordered its release to the defense.

Become A Sponsor or Purchase Tickets

An Evening of Hope
Feed your neighbors, Feed your soul

Sunday, May 17th, 2015, 5:30p.m.

Tarrytown United Methodist Church

Senate Medicaid proposal would burden disadvantaged Texans and property taxpayers

Submitted by Sean Hennigan on Mon, 03/02/2015 – 12:42pm

AUSTIN—In response to Lt. Governor Patrick and Sen. Schwertner’s letter asking federal officials for flexibility to increase burdens on current Texas Medicaid recipients, Texas Impact issued the following statement:

“Texas faith communities have a deep, historic commitment to our state’s healthcare system. Many of our hospitals retain their denominational names to this day.

We are dismayed that the Senate leadership would propose to ratchet down its already minimal support for the least of our brothers and sisters, thereby exacerbating the already onerous unfunded mandates the Legislature places on local jurisdictions.

Texans today pay twice for our uninsured. We send income tax dollars to Washington D.C.—dollars that the federal government intends to send back to cover uninsured Texans, but which state leaders have steadfastly refused.

Because lawmakers refuse to accept the repatriation of our income taxes, Texans must pay for charity care at local hospitals through property taxes. In fact, a 2013 report by former Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton estimated that hospital district taxpayers absorb more than $2 billion in local health care costs. Senate leaders have indicated that property tax relief is a priority—but the fastest way to reduce local property taxes would be to draw down available federal funds to provide health insurance for low-income Texans.

Instead, Senate leaders seem to be headed in the opposite direction. If legislators are successful in tightening restrictions for existing Medicaid recipients—who are almost exclusively children, the aged, and those with disabilities—they will only increase demands on local systems while making life harder for millions of our most challenged neighbors.”