The Black Alliance for Just Immigration invites you to our 5th Anniversary Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Come celebrate 5 years of work in the community and help us recognize those who have helped to ignite a movement.
Founder Awards - Rev. Phillip Lawson and Rev. Kelvin Sauls
Ally Award - Priority Africa Network
Community Activist Award - Catherine Tactaquin, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Community Activist Award - Pierre LaBosierre, Co-founder, Haiti Action Committee
Young Leaders Award - R.I.S.E. Immigration Research Team, Berkeley High School
Saturday, June 4, 2011
5:30 pm: Reception & Silent Auction
7:00 pm: Dinner and Program
Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California
1433 Madison Street, Oakland 94612
Tickets are $60. Please purchase at: http://bit.ly/BAJI5year
Facebook Event Page.
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) is an organization founded in Oakland, California in 2006 to engage African Americans and other communities in a dialogue that leads to actions that challenge U.S. immigration policy and the underlying issues of race, racism and economic inequity that frame it.
BAJI is an education and advocacy group comprised of African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. BAJI’s goals are: 1) to develop a core group of African Americans who are prepared to actively support immigrant rights; and 2) to facilitate the building of relationships and alliances between African American and immigrant communities around a range of social issues to further the mutual cause of economic and social justice for all.
BAJI works to expose the ways in which racism and economic globalization have negatively impacted African American and immigrant communities alike, giving them common cause to fight together for economic and social justice for all peoples. BAJI’s strategy is to provide education and information to African American communities about the commonality of interests between African Americans and immigrants of color and to give technical assistance and training to leaders and organizers in communities of color.
In the past 5 years we've done various things including:
+ Led numerous “Conversations on Immigration” in local African American churches;
+ held public forums on Black Diaspora issues such as ‘Imprisonment of African Immigrants in Europe’;
+ Worked with various Inter-Faith initiatives around immigration and immigrant rights issues;
+ Active in Local May Day Immigrant Rights Demonstrations since 2006;
+Worked in local immigrant rights coalitions with Latino & Asian organizations;
+A major organization in the Oakland City I.D. card campaign ;
+ Collaborated with local groups working against car impoundments; for multi-language translation of Public documents; and most recently against the DHS-“Secure Communities” program;
+ Sponsored “Africa Diaspora Dialogues” between Africans and African Americans along with the Priority Africa Network; attempting to build unity along political and cultural lines;
+Collaborated with the Oakland Museum of California as part of the planning and publicity for the Museum’s “Africans in Mexico” Exhibition;
+Sponsored Tele-Conferences with prominent academics and activists on topical Black Diaspora issues;
On a the national and international level we've done the following:
+ Led campaigns to secure Temporary Protective Status for both Haitians and Liberians in the U.S.;
+ Active participant in both the U.S and World Social Forum processes 2007 -2011;
+ Founding members of the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights - participated in founding meetings in Bamako, Mali, Mexico City, Mexico and Dakar, Senegal;
+ Set up the Black Immigration Network (B.I.N.) as an advocacy network for Black Immigrants in the U.S.;
+ Led a delegation of Black Pastors to Phoenix, Arizona for the May 29th Rally in 2010;
+ Participated in various national and state conferences on Immigration and related topics;
+ Along with the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos and the National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights, BAJI led the first all-Black delegation for a Tour of the Mexico/Arizona border in 2007;
+ Published 2 editions of the BAJI Reader;
+ Published the Report - Crossing Boundaries, Connecting Communities: Alliance Building for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice. detailed case studies of 16 organizations from across the country that are forging effective cross racial alliances between immigrant and native-born communities in order to build power and win just policies and practices in their communities.
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