The Tanya McDowell Case and the Fight Against the New Jim Crow

Through the recession, Black and Latino families have been hit the hardest leading to the highest disparity of wealth in a quarter century. Unemployment rates for minorities are twice as high as those of whites. The average net worth of a white person is 20 times higher than that of Blacks.

In Norwalk, Conn., Tanya McDowell, a homeless mother, has been charged with first-degree larceny and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $15,000 fine as a result of enrolling her son in her babysitter’s school district. Prosecutors claim that McDowell “stole education” and should have enrolled her five-year-old son in the significantly poorer urban district of Bridgeport, where McDowell had last resided.

Civil rights leaders, activists, and parents’ groups across the country have mobilized to defend McDowell.

Should a family be criminalized for trying to receive a decent education? For decades the “War on Drugs” and the prison industrial complex have targeted communities of color for mass incarceration. The McDowell case is just the most recent example of the institutionalized racism that pervades our society and divides workers.

Hear Tanya McDowell’s attorney, Darnell Crosland, and his associate from the NAACP provide insights into this controversial legal battle.

Join us for a lively discussion on how we can mobilize to defend McDowell and fight to end the New Jim Crow!

A Socialist Action Forum: Thursday, Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m. La Paloma Sabanera, 405 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Connecticut.