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BBC News

Six face kidnap charges in torture case

LOGAN, West Virginia (AP) -- The list of horrors allegedly endured by a woman at the hands of six people in a remote trailer grew during the suspects' court hearings -- leaving the woman's mother sobbing.

Reading Tuesday from a statement 20-year-old Megan Williams gave deputies the day she was rescued from the ramshackle home, a sheriff's deputy said she had been stabbed with what she described as a butcher knife and beaten with wooden sticks and fly swatters.

She said she was sexually assaulted, doused with hot water, forced to eat animal feces, and taunted with racial slurs.

Among the new allegations, she said hot wax was poured on her, and that two of her captors forced her to drink a cup of their urine.

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Letter to Governor Blanco - Jena 6

download letter as pdf document

September 18, 2007
Honorable Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Governor of the State of Louisiana
Office of the Governor
PO Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004
[cc: District Attorney, U.S. Attorney and School Superintendent]

Dear Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco,

As human rights organizations working in the United States and around the world, we applaud the actions of Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday which vacated the conviction of Mychal Bell, although we are troubled that the District Attorney announced his intention to appeal the ruling. We also remain deeply concerned about reports surrounding the recent events in Jena, Louisiana. Specifically, we are concerned about reports that:

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Justice for the Jena 6

from colorofchange.com

Six young black men are headed for 20+ year prison sentences in a clear case of Jim Crow "justice."

Photo of Jena Six Parents

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Segregated Survivor

The cast of the upcoming 13th season of the reality game show "Survivor" will be divided along ethnic lines. The contestants will be segregated into four "tribes" of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos when the hit CBS program returns on 14 September. The Building the Beloved Community Issue Committee feels this premise will only create further damage to race relations. We strongly urge to write a letter to CBS stating your concerns. For your convenience, we've provided the below letter...for background on the letter here are the references you may want to check out: NY Times and in the LA Times
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THE EAST COAST TOUR IN PITTSBURGH

Workshop participants form break out groups to discuss how racial domination and oppression plays itself out in the lives of white Americas and the organizations they belong to.

Earlier this year, the BBC obtained a Racial Justice Grant from the Pond Foundation for, for an East Coast Tour of Creating Caring Communities. This is a pilot project that combines Sha'an Moulierts's workshop, which utilizes the very physical and often non-verbal techniques of the game Star Power and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, and Donna Lamb's workshop "Being an Effective Social Justice Activist - the Personal Side," which takes a more verbal approach to dealing with the need for introspection in order to achieve one's goals as an activist.

The invitation to give our workshop on May 20th at the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh came from Pittsburgh branch member Edith Bell, who contacted us in response to the branch mailing in which we advertised the East Coast tour. The Thomas Merton Center wanted to begin to address racism and Edith thought the East Coast Tour would be a good place to start.

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Building the Beloved Community in Washington, DC

By Donna Lamb

Earlier this month, the National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR) met for the ninth year at American University in Washington DC. Close to 2,000 people from all over the country packed its approximately 100 workshops on such varied topics as Race and Privilege in Radical Communities, Parenting for Social Change, Animal Rights and Human Wrongs, What Does Positive Masculinity Look Like?, and Street Theater as a Media Tool.

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REPORT OF THE CREATING CARING COMMUNITIES WORKSHOP

Sha'an Mouliert introduces workshop
10 AM - 2 PM June 10, 2006

Sponsored by Catonsville and Baltimore Branches of WILPF

On this sunny Saturday in June, 19 people attended the workshop, including members of both the Catonsville and Baltimore branches of WILPF, Women in Black of Baltimore, and 5 other non-WILPF members who responded to the various mailings, flyers, press releases, and phone calls that promoted the event. Three men were in attendance. Two of the women were African-American. Participants ranged in age from mid-20s to 90.
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