Happy New Year! We begin 2017 very excited to engage in deep study of New Afrikan urban affairs, particularly in the city of Springfield, MA. We especially welcome students who live in or who call Springfield home to enroll or be involved with our class. This is not, strictly speaking, a lecture course. #BSM2017 is a team-based, civic engagement research seminar. This semester I will be a CESL Faculty Fellow studying with my colleagues how to make this class a more dynamic, engaged service learning course. I also continue to work on the creation of a UMass Amherst Racial Justice Institute. Please contact me at shabazz@umass.edu with any questions or concerns, and please let folks know about the course who might want to be involved in this work. I will announce key research themes for the course so keep checking this site for more information. One key area I will introduce in this post is the issue of criminal justice reform, which, more commonly known as the problem of mass incarceration, is one of the most important issues of racial justice facing the City of Springfield.

In the previous offerings of this course I connected students with the case of Charles Wilhite. We were there in the fight for Justice for Charles when he was in prison serving a life sentence, during his second trial, his release, and, just recently, his winning an historic $1.4 million settlement for his wrongful imprisonment from the City of Springfield. Below are some news stories that can acquaint you with Charles’ landmark struggle for justice against police and prosecutorial forces that are a textbook example of social injustice and systemic racism. As we study matters this semester State Senate President Stan Rosenberg has announced* that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be pursuing criminal justice reform as a top priority of legislative action this year. Let us do our part to advance that critical process through our work to identify, document, and analyze problems in policing and prosecuting, the problem of mass incarceration in Springfield, MA. More to come…