The (In)Visible Brick: Paradoxes in Nonviolence and Self Defense

Aug 7, 2024

In this episode we're exploring the paradoxes in nonviolence and self defense through an intergenerational conversation between elder and younger organizers based in New Jersey, Florida, East Tennessee, and North Carolina.

In this conversation, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) veterans and younger organizers dig into the always present tension between nonviolence and self-defense, sharing lessons from the past, and offering possibilities for the future. 

This episode is hosted by Dr. Catherine Meeks (she/her) based in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Meeks is a member of the National Council of Elders, Executive Director of Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Healing and Transformation, and the author of A Quilted Life: Reflections of a Sharecropper's Daughter.

Joining Dr. Meeks in this conversation are:

• Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons (she/her) based in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Simmons is a long time civil rights movement organizer and professor emeritus at the University of Florida.
• Junius Williams (he/him) based in Newark, New Jersey, who is the official historian of Newark, host of the podcast "Everything's Political," and author of the book: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power.
• Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson (she/her) based in East Tennessee, who is an activist organizer and movement strategist born and raised in the Black liberation and southern freedom movement. Ash-Lee is the first Black woman to serve as executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a leader in the Movement for Black Lives.
• DeMonte Alford (he/him) based in southeast North Carolina and is an organizer working with Democracy NC.