View as WebpageDecember 2024 Newsletter

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Amanda,

Finding Optimism and Hope Amidst Radical Evil

Roadmap for Justice and Freedom

In our current societal landscape, where radical evil often feels pervasive and insurmountable, it’s crucial to cultivate a sense of optimism. Despair, defined as a loss of hope, can paralyze us and render us ineffective in our fight for justice and civil rights. However, amidst these challenges, there are pathways to resilience, and historical figures such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Noam Chomsky, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel offer profound insights into how we can maintain hope and fortitude in our struggle.

Understanding Despair and Its Dangers

Despair can be a powerful and consuming emotion, often leading to inaction. It is characterized by a sense of helplessness, where the enormity of injustice can make the individual feel insignificant. This feeling can often overshadow the possibility of change and the impact of collective action. When we look at the struggles for civil rights and social justice, we find that despair is a natural response to systemic oppression; however, it is essential not to be overwhelmed by it. Our work at the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is always important no matter what era we find ourselves in. We and countless others are the vanguards of hope is an every consuming era of despair.

The Call to Action: Fighting for Justice

The fight for justice requires a concerted effort to transform despair into action. Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights leader, famously stated, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Her words remind us that our struggles are interconnected and that hope exists in the collective pursuit of justice. Dr. King emphasized that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” This perspective highlights that while the fight may be long and arduous, progress is possible.

Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, dedicated her life to advocating for the marginalized. She believed that “the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.” This philosophy encourages us to act with generosity of spirit, fostering community and solidarity in our struggles.

A Social Justice Roadmap

As we strive to remain optimistic, let’s look at how civil rights and human rights organizations can lead in this moment:

1. Building Community: Create safe spaces for dialogue and healing. Encourage participation in local organizations that prioritize community building and collective action.

2. Education and Advocacy: Equip individuals with knowledge about their rights and the mechanisms of social justice. Host workshops and discussions that promote understanding of systemic injustices.

3. Mobilization: Organize peaceful protests and campaigns that highlight critical issues. Encourage community members to get involved in local governance and advocacy initiatives.

4. Collaboration: Establish partnerships with diverse organizations to amplify voices and broaden the impact of our efforts. Noam Chomsky reminds us that “the responsibility of intellectuals is to speak the truth and expose lies.” Use your platform to uplift marginalized voices.

5. Spiritual Resilience: Draw inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who taught that “in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Cultivate a sense of shared responsibility and moral obligation to advocate for justice.

Maturity and Fortitude in the Fight for Freedom

Maturity and fortitude are essential qualities in our pursuit of justice. Maturity involves recognizing the complexities of social issues and understanding that change often requires sustained effort over time. Fortitude, or the courage to confront challenges, is vital when faced with adversity. As we look to the legacy of leaders like Hamer, King, Day, Chomsky, and Heschel, we see that these qualities are not merely personal virtues; they are collective necessities in the fight for freedom. In the face of radical evil, our commitment to justice and civil rights must remain unwavering. By transforming despair into action and embracing community, education, and resilience, we can continue the legacy of those who fought before us. Amazing people like Homer Floyd and the hundreds of social change agents that have worked at the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission since 1955 to present. Let us not be paralyzed by despair but instead channel our energies into creating a more just and equitable world.

Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW

Executive Director

The PHRC orders Chadds Ford gun range to pay $89K

in Religious Creed discrimination cases

Complainants allege they were denied access because of head coverings

The PHRC has ordered Tommy Gun, Inc. d/b/a Targetmaster to pay a total of $89,098.55 to the Commonwealth and two complainants, who both alleged they were denied access to the facility because they refused to remove their head coverings.

The PHRC is committed to protecting all Pennsylvanians who face discrimination,” said PHRC Executive Director Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW. “No one should be denied access to a public business because of their religious head coverings. I am proud of our team of investigators and attorneys for this work on this complaint. If you have experienced discrimination, file a complaint with one of our regional offices.”

A virtual public hearing was held for both cases on May 9, 2024. The two cases were consolidated in January 2024 because they involved similar complaints with the same respondent and sought similar relief. Assistant Chief Counsel Dana Prince, Esq. and Interim Chief Counsel Morgan Williams, Esq. represented the Commonwealth’s interest. Complainant #1 was represented by Hogan Lovells US LLP and the Sikh Coalition. Complainant #2 was represented by Timothy Welbeck, Esq. and Respondent was represented by Michael Hawley, Esq. 

In its November 25 amended final order, the PHRC ordered Targetmaster to:

• cease and desist unlawful discriminatory practice of failing to provide religion accommodations to its dress code policy.
• pay complainant #1 a lump sum of $64,098.55 which represents out-of-pocket expenses, compensatory damages of embarrassment and humiliation that he suffered and attorney’s fees and costs, within 60 days of the effective date of the order.
• pay complainant #2 a lump sum of $15,000.00 which represents compensatory damages of embarrassment and humiliation that she suffered, within 60 days of the effective date of the order.
• deliver to the PHRC a check, payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the amount of $10,000.00 which represents an assessment of a civil penalty pursuant to section 9(f)(2)(i) of the PHRA, within 60 days of the effective date of the order.
• report to the PHRC within 60 days the manner of compliance with the terms of the Order. 

“The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act protects all Pennsylvanians on the basis of religious creed, this includes all aspects of religious observances and practices, as well as beliefs,” said PHRC Interim Chief Counsel Morgan Williams, Esq. “This order affirms our commitment to protecting those who file complaints and should deter any business or organization from instituting a dress code policy that discriminates against a person’s religious beliefs.”

No Hate in Our State Town Hall

Date: Wednesday, December 18

Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Location: Dee's Event Center, 514 McKean Avenue, Charleroi, PA 15022

Panelists:

• Augusta Goll, Charleroi resident & entrepreneur
• Emily Holmes, Senior State Program Officer, Pennsylvania, Resilient States Project, Common Ground USA
• David Gattling, President, Washington County NAACP Branch
• Joseph Manning, Charleroi Borough Manager
• Chad Dion Lassiter, PHRC Executive Director
• Sheryl Meck, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Division Director

Moderator: Omar Henriquez, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator



Register to attend.

Celebrating one-year of the PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Division

Sheryl Meck

Director, Civil Rights Outreach

The Civil Rights Outreach Division of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission launched at the beginning of this year and its creation has allowed for a new way to reach and serve the people of the Commonwealth.

The roles of Civil Rights Outreach Division include:

• Provide complex facilitation and conflict resolution services for communities facing conflicts and tensions related to race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, LGBTQ+ status, national origin, familial status, or disability status pursuant to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
• Provide training and consultation services to public officials and community representatives and provides them with the skills and mechanisms necessary to prevent and resolve future tensions.
• Lead local projects or initiatives, as assigned by leadership to improve the Civil Rights Outreach Coordinators' visibility, ability to deliver services, and ability to anticipate and prevent conflict in jurisdictional communities.
• Develop and implement comprehensive outreach plans targeting communities in conjunction with the PHRC Advisory Councils and the PHRC Social Justice Ambassadors Program.
• Engage in proactive outreach to educate the public about the dangers of bias and hate and the importance of anti-racism.

The Division is comprised of one Director and four Civil Rights Outreach Coordinators, who serve as Pennsylvania’s peacemakers, who are dedicated to traveling the state to meet with the people, monitor civil unrest, educate the public on anti-racism and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and listen to the concerns of the community.

There are several community response events that include outreach and training coming up in December. The Civil Rights Division will be at the following locations:

Delaware County Community Response

Date: Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Time: 6-8 p.m.

Location: Access Center, 701 Booth Street, Chester, PA 19013

Speakers:

Sheryl Meck, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Director

Joshua Nix, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator

Register today!

Latino Sensitivity Orientation

Date: Thursday, December 12

Time: 5-7 p.m.

Location: Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422

Speakers:

Hector Luis Torres-Diaz, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator

Omar Henriquez, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator

Register today!

General PHRC Overview Training

Date: Friday, December 13

Time: 1-3 p.m.

Location: Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422

Speakers:

Hector Luis Torres-Diaz, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator

Omar Henriquez, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator

Register today!

Leadership and resilience in uncertain times

La Dawn Robinson

Pittsburgh Regional Office Director

In times of uncertainty, effective leadership and resilience become paramount. Unpredictable events, whether economic downturns, global pandemics, or shifting political climates, can challenge even the most prepared organizations. Leaders who can navigate these turbulent conditions, not only ensure the survival of their organizations, but also reinforce the foundation for sustained success in the future. There are various aspects of leadership and resilience that are essential in uncertain times. The following paragraphs will focus on two key aspects: Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Building a Resilient Work Culture.

The first aspect is Emotional intelligence (EI). EI refers to the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and influence one's own emotions and the emotions of others. EI can play a significant role in professional success by the promotion for better communication, empathy, and conflict resolution. When leaders have strong EI, it is visible when employees need understanding, building of trust, and loyalty.

The second aspect is Building a Resilient Work Culture. Building a Resilient Work Culture is measured by the ability of an organization to adapt, succeed, and recover in the face of challenges, disruptions, and setbacks. It is an organization that values, collaboration, teamwork, new ideas, and continuous learning… allowing employees the space and time to navigate uncertainties and setbacks effectively.

Leadership and resilience are critical components of navigating uncertain times. By focusing on emotional intelligence and building a resilient work culture, leaders can guide their organizations through unrest, emerging stronger and at times, better.

If you are an aspiring leader or a seasoned leader who is interested in exploring leadership and resilience, below are a few recommendations to get you started:

• "Leaders Eat Last" by Simon Sinek: This book dives into why some teams work well together while others don't, emphasizing the importance of trust and collaboration.
• "The Resilient Leaders Podcast": Specifically targets building resilience in leadership.
• Articles and journals from the Harvard Business Review focused on organizational behavior and psychology.

How often have you thought about the people

you will never meet?

Alson Clayton Alston

Assistant Chief Counsel

Do you know Mrs. Mary Martin from San Francisco? How about Ms. Judy Chapman, Miss Bobbie or Mrs. Margaret Morris from North Philly? What about Stephanie Alston from New York or Dede Yekrangi from Oakland?

The randomness of time and life suggests that you don’t know these people. But that same randomness suggests that you surely must know people very much like them. 

I want to take a few moments to tell you about these people. I am certain that they will remind you of your mission(s), your sacrifices, your aspirations, good works and regrets. I ask only one thing, that you call your exemplars of these people to tell them what they have meant to you and, to the extent that you are these people, take heart and know that your causes remain at the core of what makes life worthwhile.

Mrs. Martin was a public school teacher and administrator in the 1980s at Balboa High School in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Balboa had a majority Filipino, African-American and Latino student population. Mrs. Martin was deeply troubled that many students had failed Algebra I twice. She saw that they would never be able to pass the entrance or aptitude tests to become police officers, electricians, medical professionals, etc. She contacted an experimental program that allowed recent college graduates to teach science and math classes in SF schools. I had just graduated from UC Berkeley with a graduate engineering degree and was eager to help, which I did for a year. The bureaucracy was so great at the SFUSD, however, that Mrs. Martin was compelled to start her own school, the S.R. Martin School, named for her deceased husband. To keep the school afloat, she would eventually sell all of her real estate over the next decade, leaving her with virtually nothing. She educated thousands of local kids, who paid little or no tuition, giving them a fighting chance in a highly competitive economy.

I learned that she always had an extraordinary commitment to serve and that growing up in racially segregated New Orleans in the 1940s gave her direction and purpose. Her father taught her not to be a passenger in life, but to “drive the bus, Mary.”

Miss Bobbie and Mrs. Chapman were activist grandmothers in North Philly in the 2000s, when I returned home from California to help my old neighborhood fight for its right to exist in the midst of city-sponsored gentrification waves. These ladies, along with my mother, Mrs. Morris, and numerous other grandmothers, like Ms. Peggy Martin, Mrs. Richardson, Ms. Tyler and their adult children, Audrey, Carl, Shirly, Terrance, John, Phyllis, etc. were the backbone of a 10-year grass roots effort that gave our small part of North Philly new life, jobs, training programs, newsletters, a new post office and enough clout to protect itself. I learned from these ladies that belief in community begins with belief in family and that powerful forces will fall when confronted with united and deeply rooted residents.

Stephanie Alston was my sister, a healer who travelled the world, bringing light wherever she went. She was the cultural beacon of my family, who stood by my mother’s side, no matter the cost. My mother needed allies because, as an African-American woman born in 1930, she knew only obligation, sacrifice and impossible struggles. She had the misfortune of having endured two husbands who cared little for their children, were cowardly and abusive towards women. So, it was left to her to find ways to protect her children from North Philly gangs attacking her sons. Once she stood between boys carrying baseball bats and my oldest brother Orick. She was dressed in her housecoat, armed only with a spatula because she was summoned there by my sister Venus and brother Vincent, while making dinner, with no time to spare. She taught us to survive being called Nigger countless times a day in the 1970s at St. Francis Xavier School in the Fairmount District – never with force, but through achievement and learning about our history. 

She would finally marry a decent man, Mr. John Morris, the first police officer we ever met who treated us with respect. He would soon die of colon cancer, after, as tough guys tend to do, ignoring a pain in his stomach for a year. Stephanie and I would take care of our mother in mom’s final days. There was a gentle blessing in our mother’s dementia – she could never feel the depths of sorrow from losing half of her 11 children to cancer and worse.

Mrs. Morris taught all of her children that we are our brother’s keeper, that even when we have little, we can still share half of it. Stephanie taught her younger siblings that we were born to explore the world and that our duty as we travel is to make family wherever we go. Going to California meant that I would find a new family there, in Mrs. Martin and an extraordinary secretary at work, Dede, who saved every penny she earned for seven years to buy a home for her daughter and her in the Oakland hills. Together, they were the backbone of my life on the West Coast and made it possible for me to return back to Philly and lead a fight for survival that would eventually take me to law school at 50.

Every life is a journey whose contours are shaped by our families, communities and the choices we make along the way. I remember countless strangers planting seeds of encouragement in us when my mother would bring my siblings and me on the numerous errands that mothers seem to run each day. It mattered less what they said to us, than that they cared enough to offer kind words. I now make a point of returning those affirmations several times a day. What does it cost me to tell a single father that he is doing a great job or a single mother that her children are very mannerly? A wise man once told me that a brief compliment, even in passing, might be the only one a person receives all day or all week, but might be what they need to get them through that day or week.

As I said in the beginning, you probably know all of the people in this account, just by different names. So, please call them, if they are still among us, and thank them for being in your life. Also, ask them what you can do for them.

Congratulations, Director Adrian Garcia for being named a City & State PA's 2024 Impact honoree.

Upcoming PHRC Events

Housing Protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians

Join us to learn about LGBTQ+ housing protections under the PA Human Relations Act and the Fair Housing Act. 

• Wednesday, December 18, 2024
• 12:00-1:00 p.m.
• Register for this TEAMS webinar

Building Pennsylvania's Beloved Community in Berks County

• Date: Friday, December 6, 2024
• Time: 5:30-7 p.m.
• Location: Centro Hispano Hispanic Center, 25 N. Second Street, Reading, PA 19601
• Register today.

Building Pennsylvania's Beloved Community in Cameron, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, McKean, Mercer, Venango, & Warren Counties

• Date: Monday, December 16, 2024
• Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
• Virtual
• Register today.

If you have attended one of our Beloved Community tour stops, please take a moment to complete our survey. The PHRC is still looking for locations to host upcoming sessions, anyone interested in partnering with the PHRC should contact Stacy Waters at stwaters@pa.gov.

PHRC Speaks: Fair Housing Forward

New Episode: Working Together for Welcoming Communities featuring Sheryl Meck, PHRC Civil Rights Outreach Director.

Watch on PCNtv: December 15 at 3 p.m.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is taking action against the state’s high maternal mortality rate through the development of a statewide Maternal Health Strategic Plan

In partnership with Governor Shapiro’s office, the health agencies involved in plan development include the departments of Health, Human Services, Drug and Alcohol Programs, and Insurance.

The vision for Pennsylvania’s Maternal Health Strategic Plan is a Pennsylvania where every pregnant and birthing person has easy access to high-quality perinatal, birth and postpartum care that is person-centered, comprehensive, equitable, and affordable and that results in healthy outcomes and long-term good health and wellbeing.

Your voice matters in decisions that affect maternal health. You are invited to share your voice on the Pennsylvania Maternal Health Strategic Plan Survey:

Spanish Survey Link

English Survey Link

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