A Louisiana community-based youth organization met with the San Jose State community during a panel on Zoom Thursday to discuss dismantling systems of oppression that disproportionately affect people of color.
Founders of the Free-Dem Foundations (FDF) was established in 2017 by Jerome Morgan and Robert Jones, who were wrongfully convicted of murder, and is meant to help disregarded Black and brown youths adapt to adulthood and collaborate with men who’ve recently transitioned out of the prison system.
“Our organization bridges the gap between our missing community members returning to society and the disregarded youth who suffer from not having a positive male figure in their immediate community,” Morgan said during the panel.
Morgan was erroneously convicted of murdering a 16-year-old boy in 1993 after prosecutors purposely omitted additional evidence in the trial that could’ve been favorable to his defense. He spent 20 years in prison prior to his exoneration.
Jones was mistakenly convicted of murdering British tourist Julie Stott in 1992 despite evidence that a man with his same last name committed the crime. Jones spent 23 years in prison until his conviction was vacated in 2014.
Jones said while they were both incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary from 1993-2014, they promised each other if they were exonerated, they’d work together to end oppression caused by the prison system.
Their dreams became reality when their charges were overturned one year apart.
“Since being released, we have changed the narrative of Black guys returning to society from prison,” Morgan said during the panel. “We take the obligation to be a positive Black male figure to our youth and their families.”
The U.S. leads the world in the number of incarcerated individuals at about 2.3 million people, according to a March 24, 2020 Prison Policy Initiative report, a nonprofit research organization focused on mass criminalization.
At least 30 people attended the discussion organized by the SJSU Culture Counts Reading Series, a campus organization dedicated to collective learning and cultural expression.
During the panel, SJSU community members shared how they related to Jones and Morgan’s stories and asked for advice on how to make changes in their communities.
Justice studies Junior Angel Guzman said incarceration injustices are “undeniable” and she wishes there were programs like FDF everywhere.
“I feel like as a student and a [San Jose] native, it's also my duty to try to relieve people of the psychological bondage that throws us in the system,” Guzman said in a Zoom interview after the panel.
Jonathan Gomez, an SJSU Chicano and Chicana studies assistant professor, said the last decade has exemplified the violence in policing and white supremacy which capitalism requires in order for the economic system to exist.
“Everywhere we look we see that some people’s lives are treated as worth more than others,” Gomez said during the panel. “Some live lives of luxury while others suffer the pains of an unlivable destiny.”
FDF’s program helps young men transition into adulthood through a four-level program with the help of a small group of staff and volunteers, according to its website.
The first level teaches young men the history of oppression, how to form emotional circles and how to be a functioning citizen, according to the program’s webpage.
The second educates them on conflict resolution, camaraderie and financial literacy.
Level three promotes self-power, business development and the importance of investing in communities while the final level provides apprenticeship opportunities.
Jones and Morgan emphasized the importance of local community building and outlining the core ideologies of activist work.
Morgan said activists must form small organizations centered around community issues to effectively lift those communities from poverty and bring groups together with a collective mission.
He also said involved parties must educate themselves, develop creative ideas to solve community problems and put their plans into motion.
“The few is many,” Jones said. “I mean that because a lot of people that have changed the world started with a small group of people.”
Morgan said he wants to continue working to uplift communities and find solutions to end systemic oppression everywhere.
“Transformative solutions are ways in which to create community power,” Morgan said.
