Freedom Summer 2020 – Learn community organizing while getting out the vote! – Jul 6

Posted by UC Berkley Public Service Center on June 23, 2020

Learn how you can join a nationwide movement to get out the vote!

FINAL INFO SESSIONS:

Tuesday, June 23, 11:00 – 11:30  Register here

Friday, June 26, 10:00 – 10:30 Register here

(All times are Pacific Standard Time)

The extraordinary events of the moment have demonstrated that our elected leaders play a critical role in our survival, and have reinforced that this November’s election will be the most important election of our lives. It will be critical that the millions of low-wage communities, unemployed workers, and workers of color who typically do not vote because they feel shut out of the political system do vote this November.

You can play a huge role in making that happen. In June 1964, thousands of students from all over the country participated in Mississippi Freedom Summer, learning to organize, and playing a historic role in ensuring that low-income African Americans can vote and did vote. Many of these students went back to their college campuses, including to UC Berkeley,  and used what they learned in Mississippi to organize for Free Speech, against the war in Vietnam, and for ethnic studies on college campuses.

Now students can participate in Freedom Summer 2020, which will similarly train students to engage low-wage voters of color in key battleground states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida) and learn life-long organizing skills so necessary to make change in our world. The program is a class and field work program, in which students will learn social movement theory and history and basics of community and labor organizing, and then put those learnings into practice engaging low-wage workers to organize their peers to vote.

Learn more: https://africam.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-program/freedom-summer-2020/

In addition to fostering democratic engagement, participants will also earn 6 units of academic credit and a certificate in Social Movement Organizing from the UC Berkeley Social Movements Center. You can also contact Reed Levitt at reed.levitt@berkeley.edu to sign up today!