UPCOMING EVENTS

There are no upcoming events scheduled. To request a speaker or schedule a screening of Chapter Lead's, Waleisah Wilson's film "Working in Captivity: A Woman's Quest to End Slavery in Georgia" or chapter member's page Dukes film "Until We all Count", visit our Host A Sceening Or Request a Speaker Page.

Past Events

9/26/24. The Chapter Tabled at the "Vote In My Honor Rally" in ATL.

On Saturday, October 26th, the chapter joined the Rights Restoration Coalition of Georgia for a FREE “Vote In My Honor” Rally in Atlanta at the Dunbar Center to educate attendees on their voting rights, how they can vote in honor of someone who can't and how they  can connect with justice impacted/formerly incarcerated folk and allies doing the work to restore voting rights to Georgians on probation and parole! Attendees enjoyed food and watched a screening of chapter member's,  Page Dukes's short documentary film, Until We All Count.

9/22/24- EMI Coalition Hosts Screening & Discussion of "Working in Captivity: A Woman's Quest to End Slavery in Georgia". Atlanta.

September 22, 2024. 2p-4p. Atlanta, GA. On Sunday, September 22, 2024 from 2p-4p, EMI GA Network hosted a FREE in-person screening and discussion of Working in Captivity: A Woman's Quest to End Slavery in Georgia by filmmaker (and our chapter lead) Waleisah Wilson. We are currently campaigning to demand that Georgia change its current law that legalizes slavery for people who are convicted of a crime via incarceration and/or probation. Waleisah spoke on why she made the film and the importance of why Georgia needs to end prison slavery and how Georgia voters, especially the faith community can support our #endslaveryinGA campain which aims to amend the State's constitution that currently legalizes slavery for those convicted of a crime. She highlighted how this harms communities and impacts the economy as it takes away paying jobs from members of the community. Yoiu can learn more about Georgia's history and dependency on slavery here and you can sign our petition to #endSlaveryinGA at https://www.change.org/EndSlaveryInGA.

Liberation Tour Stop 2: Atlanta, GA. 5/30/23 at 5:30pm. (Hapeville)

Atlanta is home to the infamous Chattahoochee Brick Co. where its labor was performed by the free labor of primarily black people (men, women and children) who had been arrested for petty crimes (if any crimes at all). These workers were severely abused and many of them perished at the factory. This leads people to believe that there are graves there, as there is a cemetery on the property. (source: The Grisly History of the Chattahoochee Brick Company).

Incarcerated women were doubly burdened, performing domestic duties in prison camps and in the homes of white families in addition to strenuous manual labor alongside incarcerated men.  Even while performing demanding and dangerous tasks like breaking rock, shoveling and hauling wet clay, and baking brick near extremely hot kilns, incarcerated women were expected to wear “female clothing" and often subjected to sexual assault on a daily basis. Georgia was not only one of the first states to exploit the labor of incarcerated women for railroad construction; it also built the first all-female work camp in 1885 in Atlanta where the wome were required to make the 40,000 odd bricks used to build the adjacent Fulton County Almshouse. In another female camp, the Bolton Broom Factory, women produced brooms. The number of incarcerated Black women far surpassed the number of incarcerated white women. While large numbers of Black men were arrested for vagrancy, many Black women were charged with minor offenses such as arguing or using profane language in public. (source: Women in Convict Camps)

The city of Atlanta, which recently purchased the land that the Chattahoochee Brick Company sat on to "honor and comemorate the lives lost there" claims to be "Moving Atlanta Forward" and has an "Invest Atlanta" program that claims to create equity and prosperity for ALL of Atlanta. However, the city ACTIVELY exploits currently incarcerated people through slavery and forgets that people incarcerated in its city and state that calls Atlanta home (and their families) also deserve equity and the opportunity to prosper. However, the city prefers to support a practice that causes more harm to a large number of its population that are not only denied housing but are discriminated against in employment by the very same businesses, including the city and state, that they worked for years and decades for free but are denied once released!

Georgia's continued use of slavery harms communities, especially Black communities, as its Black citizens are disproportionately subjected to arrest, incarceration and longer sentences that subject them to being slaves, contributes to unemployment of newly released individuals as well as people on the outside who are denied these jobs for a wage, stifles economic growth and incarcerating people costs Georgia taxpayers over $1 billion dollars annually! WE DON'T NEED TO USE SLAVERY TO BE ECONOMICALLY PRODUCTIVE, TO PUNISH OR TO "TEACH" SKILLS. The city of South Fulton proves that by NOT using slave labor!

Panelists:

• Waleisah Wilson, AOUON GA Chapter Lead, Activist & Filmmaker of "Working in Captivity: A Woman's Quest to End Slavery in GA"
• Jessica Umberger- Formerly Incarcerated Community Leader & Advocate (featured in film)
• Robyn Hasan, Executive Director of Women on the Rise & National Leader
• Donna Stephens- Founder and Chair of the Chattahoochee Brick Company Descendants Coalition

Moderator: Chantaye McLaughlin, AOUONGA chapter member and entrepreneur

Light Refreshments Sponsored by:  Women on the Rise

- To view photos from the Atlanta screening and discussion, visit the photo gallery