View the open letter and list of signatories here. Numbers have been updated as the casualties in Gaza have continue to climb.

We are child and nonprofit advocates of all races, ages, and backgrounds. We work across local, state, and national contexts, on issues ranging from racial justice to education, from violence prevention to democratic freedom. We are Americans who have dedicated our lives to justice, peace, and humanity.

We write today to implore President Biden, Vice President Harris, the administration and members of Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank. We call for an end to the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinian children, women, and men by the Israeli government—killings financed by U.S. taxpayers against the will of a majority of U.S. voters.

We call for action now—not next week, not next month—because every day that goes by is another day these atrocities continue; atrocities that include targeted civilian killings, mass civilian incarceration and torture, and deliberate destruction of infrastructure at an unprecedented pace. The death toll stands at more than 20,000 Palestinians and counting, with more than 50,000 wounded. Without immediate action, tens of thousands more innocent people will die. Entire families are quite literally waiting to be killed as bombings of residential areas persist. Survivors are suffering untold horrors as they lose their families, their limbs, their homes, and their access to food and water. 

See more here...

A Soul Food Session and Books & Breakfast are the best way to start the day! 

CASA of Galveston County, Rosenberg Library, and Children's Defense Fund Texas joined us for a fun morning of crafting and books during our Books & Breakfast! Each child that attended left with a bag FULL of games and books for their home libraries. With the wonderful donations from Mod Coffee House, Shipley's Donuts, and Donut Palace no one left hungry either! 

Our Youth and Adult Soul Food Sessions were a wonderful time of community, expression, and soul as we gathered together, ate, and talked about mental health. Sharing your story and being able to express yourself creatively and with community is good for the soul, and your mental health, the purpose behind Soul Food Sessions. Delicious food from Diamond Palate played a part in the soul warming too! 

IDRA is an education non-profit whose mission is to achieve equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all students to access and succeed in college.

IDRA, believes that students should feel safe every day, in every way, by adopting practices that have been shown to promote safe and welcoming schools and do not compromise the overall well-being of young people. 

Because of this, they are collecting stories from youth to share your experiences, perspectives and thoughts on school safety. If you would like to share, your thoughts may be featured in their March newsletter on school safety. (They will not use your name without contacting

you for your permission.)

You can write a poem, a short essay, submit a drawing or any piece of creative media that speaks to you about school safety. Or you can just sum up your

thoughts in one word or phrase.

Form responses will be shared with IDRA's policy and communications team. 

Share your thoughts here, IDRA School Safety Story Share 

Check out our Parent's page on Facebook to stay up to date on The Future is US events and let US know what YOU think as a parent/caregiver of students in Galveston county! 

Baby Talk starts up again at the Rosenberg Library Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 12 at 9:30 AM! Baby Talk is a free, fun, interactive time for little ones to develop their skills with their caregivers. For ages 0-24 months. 

When Community Action Task Force Lead, Phylicia French, isn't doing The Future is US duties and writing (she's an author too!), she is helping and empowering others! 

Co-Coordinator Shanice is on the Woodville Public Engagement Planning Committee in Gloucester, Virginia! 

The Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation in Gloucester County, VA, is collecting oral histories from people who attended, or whose family members attended, historically African-American schools in Gloucester County from 1871, when public schools first opened, until the year schools were integrated in 1968.

The Woodville School is the only remaining one of six Rosenwald schools built in Gloucester County in the 1920s and celebrates its 100th birthday this year—2023. The Foundation plans to open this historic building as a museum and community center once renovations are complete.

During the Great Migration, African-American families in Gloucester relocated to urban centers such as Washington, DC; Baltimore; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; and New York City to seek better employment and educational opportunities. The Foundation hopes to connect with this descendant community to add their stories to the archive.

For more information, and/or to share your experience, please contact the Foundation by email at info@woodvillerosenwaldschool.org.

From Black Alliance for Peace

Historically, African (Black) women in the U.S. have contributed to social progress movements, including the fight against  racial oppression,  patriarchy, capitalist exploitation, western imperialism, and colonialism. Women’s struggle for peace and freedom has challenged the U.S.’ push for war and global dominance. During today’s commemorations for International Women’s Day, women celebrated for their achievements highlight a stark reality of how far our communities have departed from the Black Radical Peace tradition.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli Occupation forces have murdered over 30,000 Palestinians and displaced millions more. Despite the International Court of Justice's ruling, the U.S. has continued to justify and support Israel in its ongoing genocide, employing individuals like Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to consistently vote no on proposed U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolutions for a toothless “humanitarian pause”. Thomas-Greenfield's willingness to serve as a loyal Blackface of Empire disregards Palestinians as a whole but also the enduring suffering of Palestinian women under settler colonial occupation, who give birth to still-born babies at checkpoints, and face widespread instances of sexualized torture, rape, and castration, irrespective of gender identity.

Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre is celebrated as a “First Black” for Empire, but her Haitian family background obscures the fact that the Biden administration is pushing the latest call for occupation of Haiti. With the impending Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti, we must remember the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti ( MINSUH ) which occupied Haiti after the removal of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haitian women experienced various forms of violence, exploitation, and marginalization. Haitian workers, predominantly women, have demanded wage increases and protested against the dehumanizing and demeaning sweatshops where they work. However, they have been met with paramilitary forces, used as a pretext for occupation, which will have detrimental effects on women.

Advocating regime change, supporting genocide, and signing draconian bills into law from Washington D.C to San Francisco, African (Black) women are being used as the faces of disparity and military proliferation, exacerbating the challenges faced by working-class African (Black) women. This is a blatant disregard of people-centered human rights and perpetuates full-spectrum domination, inevitably hindering the advancement of liberation struggles of colonized people worldwide. 

The contradictions of celebrating women's achievements while turning a blind eye to the suffering of colonized women, both domestically and globally, highlight the need to broaden the scope and meaning of International Women’s Day to make it a day of remembrance and resistance focused on the objective of overturning the structures and relationships imposed on the world by the Western colonial/capitalist system that degraded and dehumanized women across the planet. For BAP, International Women’s Day is a call to action. A clarion call to sharpen our weapons of opposition in order to strike at the heart of patriarchy, gender-based violence and capitalism.