Class 1 of ATL Liberation Spring Dedicated to Mwalimu Njuguna Mutahi

Class 1 of the Atlanta Liberation Spring class held by UNSIF was opened with these potent and timely words by Facilitator Emery Wright

“First off, I want to say that this class is in Tribute to Mwalimu Njuguna Mutahi, a Kenyan, born & raised in Nyeri, Kenya and was a very influential intellectual, revolutionary, teacher, activist, organizer and in terms of the themes of this course, he was someone who made last contributions the movement for liberation & justice in Kenya, East Africa and Globally. He spent decades in the struggle and embodied the principles and action of decolonization.”

First off, I want to say that this class is in Tribute to Mwalimu Njuguna Mutahi, a Kenyan, born & raised in Nyeri, Kenya and was a very influential intellectual, revolutionary, teacher, activist, organizer and in terms of the themes of this course, he was someone who made last contributions the movement for liberation & justice in Kenya, East Africa and Globally. He spent decades in the struggle and embodied the principles and action of decolonization. 


Premise: The act of remembering our history of liberation in the South is part of the process of decolonization. 

Learning Objectives:
1) Expose how the dominant memory of southern freedom movement led by Black Southerners as “Civil Rights” history distorts our ability to envision southern freedom movement work today.
2) Compare the development of Jim Crow Aparthied in the US South with current fascist social control tendencies in the US South today.
3) Consider how our collective/peoples memory of liberation work in the US South has been colonized and strategies for decolonization.


I: What is the critical memory of southern freedom movement? (10 Min)
Born out of race, class, gender oppression within the framework of enslavement & colonialism. The overarching colonial control has never been transformed in the US South.

Ngugi Quote 

II: Round robin question (25 min)
If decolonization has to do with dismemberment (the act of dividing & pulling apart) what is the unfinished work of decolonization in the US South?

III. Confederate Arm of Neo Colonial State: A monopoly on Violence (10 Min)
Ideology: What were big ideas in the 1950s that were used by Southern White Power (Colonial/Neo-Colonial State of US South) to develop & maintain Jim Crow Aparthied? 

Law: What were legal decisions in the 1950s that were used by Southern White Power (Colonial/Neo-Colonial State of US South) to develop & maintain Jim Crow Aparthied? 

Policy: What were legal decisions in the 1950s that were used by Southern White Power (Colonial/Neo-Colonial State of US South) to develop & maintain Jim Crow Aparthied?

Violence: What were legal decisions in the 1950s that were used by Southern White Power (Colonial/Neo-Colonial State of US South) to develop & maintain Jim Crow Aparthied?

IV. Small Groups: In the Southern Movement Assembly process, we have talked about a new confederacy being used to regenerate fascist apartheid/colonial control in the US South today. How are the same elements of control being used by Power in the US South Today:
Big Ideas
Legal Decisions
Policy Proposals & Changes
Forms of violence

V. Round robin question (25 min)
Where do we see opportunities to fight the law, policy, ideas and violence that is used to maintain and expand the oppressions we face?

VI. 1-Pager Question
Given the attacks we face at the community level, what are ways/strategies we can decolonize, (re-member what’s been dis-membered) today?