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Urban America Takes a Stand on Wal-Mart
On January 8th, one week before Martin Luther King Day, leaders in key cities across the country -- including Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. – are joining together to call on Wal-Mart to address the real problems it creates for communities instead of trying to fix its image through multi-million dollar public relations campaigns. These leaders are also calling upon elected officials to adopt policies that encourage development projects that build stronger, healthier communities and protect small and minority-owned businesses.
Ten key urban leaders are taking part in a national Telepress Conference. In addition, these leaders will release a statement to Lee Scott demanding that Wal-Mart behave responsibly and treat workers and communities with respect and a statement to elected officials calling on them to hold Wal-Mart accountable signed by over one hundred urban leaders, more. Read the list of endorsers.
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Hon. Gilbert Cedillo California State Senator |
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A lifelong resident of Los Angeles, Gilbert Cedillo was elected as the State Senator from California’s 22nd District in November 2002 and is proud to represent the diverse cities of Los Angeles, Alhambra, Maywood, San Marino, South Pasadena and Vernon. Prior to his election in the Senate, Gilbert Cedillo served his constituents as the Assemblyman of California’s 46th District (1998-2002).
Senator Cedillo has become a statewide leader for protecting the rights of working men and women, increasing and expanding access to health care, assimilating immigrants into California's social and economic fabric, devising regional solutions to combat homelessness and providing new economic development opportunities throughout the state and in his downtown Los Angeles District.
Prior to being elected to the California Legislature, Senator Cedillo was the general manager of the county’s employees’ union and in that capacity is best known for championing workers’ rights at a time of massive threatened layoffs, prohibiting the dismantling of the Los Angeles County public health system; protecting libraries and youth programs; and saving more than 25,000 local jobs. He also played a critical role in securing federal assistance to ensure that the Los Angeles County Health Care system remained financially solvent.
Senator Cedillo is a member of the Senate standing committees on Judiciary, Public Safety, Rules, Transportation and Housing. Senator Cedillo grew up in Boyle Heights, attended local schools, and graduated from UCLA in 1977.
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Tracy Gray-Barkan Director of Retail Policy and Senior Research Analyst, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy |
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Ms. Gray-Barkan researches Wal-Mart's business practices and liaisons between LAANE and national organizations planning strategies to change Wal-Mart's business model. She also conducts research on governmental economic development strategies and corporations to assist policy development and campaign strategy. Ms. Gray-Barkan is also a business consultant to new media technology start-ups in the music and entertainment industries. Prior to working at LAANE, Ms. Gray-Barkan was a business analyst for Zone Ventures, a venture capital fund; a systems analyst for the City of Los Angeles; and a systems engineer for an aerospace firm as part of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. She holds a B.S. in Mathematical Science, Aeronautics emphasis, from the University of California at Santa Barbara and is an executive MBA candidate at the Berkeley and Columbia business schools.
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Van Jones Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland |
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Van Jones founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 1996. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the Ella Baker Center works to replace the U.S. incarceration industry with youth opportunities and community-based solutions. In 2002, the Center’s "Books Not Bars Campaign" helped stop the construction of a costly and controversial "Super-Jail" for youth in Oakland , California . Currently, the Center is working to close all of California ’s scandal-plagued youth prisons and replace them with regional rehabilitation centers.
Mr. Jones is also a passionate advocate for the environment and for responsible business. He is consolidating major support for his innovative proposals to create in Oakland the first-ever Green Enterprise Zone and Green Jobs Corps. He serves on numerous national boards, including the Beatitudes Society, the National Apollo Alliance and WITNESS. Jones's efforts have earned him many honors, including the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader" and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship. Mr. Jones is also co-founder of ColorofChange.org, and a featured blogger on sites including HuffingtonPost.com and Alternet.org. Born in rural West Tennessee , Jones graduated in 1990 from the University of Tennessee at Martin and, in 1993, from Yale Law School.
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Dr. Steven Pitts UC Berkeley Labor Specialist |
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Steven C. Pitts is a labor specialist with the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education (the Labor Center). He was the principal investigator for Organize…to Improve the Quality of Jobs in the Black Community: A Report on Jobs and Activism in the African American Community, a 2004 study. This year, he was the principal investigator on a year-long research project examining the Bay Area Black workforce since 1970 and the lead instructor for the newly created C.L. Dellums African American Union Leadership School. During 2007, Steven will adapt the research model used in the Bay Area study to examine Black workers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City and repeating the successful Dellums School.
Since arriving at the Labor Center in August 2001, Steven's work has focused on union leadership development programs, job quality and labor activism in the Black community, and projects involving labor-community alliances. Steven has an A.B. in economics from Harvard College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston. Prior to joining the CLRE staff, he was a full-time economics instructor at Houston Community College for 15 years and an adjunct lecturer in African American Studies at the University of Houston. |
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Rev. Eric P. Lee Executive Director, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles (SCLC/LA) |
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Prior to joining the SCLC of Greater Los Angeles, Rev. Lee worked in the finance industry for over 20 years, and in the capacity of senior management for 15 years. Rev. Lee launched a new U.S. Bank branch in the heart of the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, which became profitable faster than any new branch in the history of U.S. banking.
Rev. Lee is a core member of the Stand for Security Coalition, which is a broad citywide alliance of religious and community leaders formed to support African American security officers in their efforts to improve working conditions in their industry. Rev. Lee is also a core member of the Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education, a coalition of African American religious, civic, alumni and student leaders seeking to reform the admissions practices at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to ensure fair treatment of African American applicants.
Rev. Lee is Senior Pastor of In His Steps Ministries, the congregation he formed with his wife over 10 years ago. A native of Oakland, California, Rev. Lee graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics, and also has a master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Azusa Pacific University.
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Gil Mathieu Small Businessman, Inglewood, CA |
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Gil Mathieu is a small business owner and a longtime community activist in his hometown of Inglewood, California. He opened Handler Pharmacy in Los Angeles in 1967 and has operated the family-run business at the same location for the past 40 years. He currently serves on the Charter Study Commission for the City of Inglewood, and has served as president of the Inglewood Democratic Club, as Traffic and Parking Commissioner for the City of Inglewood, as president of Inglewood Neighbors and on the Board of Directors of Inglewood Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. Mr. Mathieu was born in New Orleans, and moved to Los Angeles in 1957. He was an active member of the 2004 campaign to defeat the Wal-Mart-initiated ballot initiative that would have allowed the company to circumvent Inglewood’s planning process and build a Supercenter. |
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Deborah Scott Executive Director, Georgia Stand-Up |
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Ms. Scott has over 20 years of experience of working within the civil rights community, progressive coalition politics and organized labor. Ms. Scott has worked as a national political consultant, campaign and project manager and organizational development trainer for progressive organizations and small businesses. As founder and managing partner of The Scott Group, Ms. Scott’s former client list includes national and local political candidates, The White House Project and The U.S. Human Rights Foundation. Ms. Scott held positions with the City of Atlanta, Georgia State Legislature, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Project Vote!, Voter Education Project and numerous other non-profit organizations. Ms. Scott served on the board of several local and regional progressive organizations, including The Women’s Policy Group and Fund for Southern Communities. She is currently co-chair of Georgia’s Working Families Coalition and a board member of the Partnership for Working Families.
Founded in 2005, Georgia Stand-Up Alliance has already won community benefit principles for one of Atlanta’s biggest redevelopment efforts, the Beltline Redevelopment Project. As part of the approval for special tax district status, Georgia Stand-Up successfully negotiated with the city to require the creation of an advisory committee that will be responsible for developing and implementing a decision-making tool designed to measure the impact of the Beltline project on working families and communities, and ensure accountable and equitable implementation of the project. |
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Adrianne Shropshire Executive Director, New York Jobs with Justice |
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Adrianne Shropshire is the Executive Director of New York Jobs with Justice (NY JWJ), a community, labor and faith-based coalition fighting for health care reform, accountable economic development and workers’ rights. NY JWJ recently won passage of the New York City Health Care Security Act, guaranteeing health coverage for thousands of grocery workers, and is actively engaged in the campaign to expand that model at the state level. Jobs with Justice’s priority programs include the development of neighborhood-based electoral mobilization networks in communities of color focused on significantly increasing voter turnout, and Faith in Action, a faith-based organizing project aimed at increasing the role and impact of faith communities in the social justice movement.
Prior to her work at NY JWJ, Ms. Shropshire worked for 10 years at AGENDA (Action for Grassroots Empowerment and Neighborhood Development Alternatives), a multi-issue, grassroots community organization based in South Los Angeles. She has done direct grassroots organizing around workforce development issues, welfare reform, subsidy and development accountability, police accountability and developing community-driven comprehensive job creation strategies. Ms. Shropshire graduated from the University of Southern California where she began her organizing experience as a student organizer. |
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Dorian T. Warren Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University |
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Dr. Warren specializes in the study of inequality and American politics, focusing on the political organization of marginalized groups. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. His research and teaching interests include race and ethnic politics, labor politics, urban politics, American political development, social movements and social science methodology. His work has been published in several journals and edited volumes, including the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, New Labor Forum, Du Bois Review, National Political Science Review and Social Service Review.
Dr. Warren received his B.A. from the University of Illinois and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a Post-Doctoral Scholar and Visiting Faculty at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and has received research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and the University of Notre Dame. |
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Rev. Lennox Yearwood CEO Hip Hop Caucus, Washington D.C |
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Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is a community activist and hip hop connoisseur. He currently serves as CEO and president of the Hip Hop Caucus and Hip Hop Caucus Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the National Director for the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, and Co-Director of Cities for Progress, a multi-city network uniting grassroots activists with local elected officials to advance campaigns for racial justice, a humane and equitable economy and an end to the war in Iraq.
The Hip Hop Caucus is an international coalition of Hip-Hop, pop-culture, social and political organizations, community-based organizations, youth leadership organizations and individuals who believe in the collective power of persons born after 1964. The Hip-Hop Caucus 501(c)4 and the Hip Hop Caucus Institute 501(c)3 were established to provide a comprehensive agenda for the Hip-Hop community that promotes social, economic and political equality.
Rev. Yearwood was also the National Grassroots and Political Director for the Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network, and was a Senior Consultant for Sean “Diddy” Combs Citizen Change and Jay Z’s Voice Your Choice, where he provided a national template for engaging the Hip-Hop generation in community-building dialogues. He is a graduate of the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University Divinity School. |
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