Alex Ames
Alex Ames (any pronouns - 20) is a queer Georgia student and an organizing leader with the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition. The Georgia Youth Justice Coalition is the largest organizing force in the state, spanning 28 counties, thousands of students, and countless victories in multiracial, intergenerational organizing. Alex is best known for their leadership in victories against numerous racial gerrymandering attacks on school boards serving two million Georgia residents, securing the best budget for GA public education in two decades this past spring, and stopping GA’s Don't Say Gay with peers. She attends college in Atlanta.
Presentations from Facing Race 2022
The Freedom to Learn: The Fight for Honest, Equitable, and Fully Funded Public Schools as the Foundation for a Just, Multiracial Democracy
In school districts across the United States, we have seen the results of the far-right’s relentless attacks on public education - whether through the proliferation of educational gag orders on race, gender, and sexual orientation in our public schools, the harassment of teachers who refuse to be silent on matters of equity and inclusion, or the banning of books that represent the full spectrum of experience that is essential to understanding our pluralistic world. Attacks on public education are not new; they are part of a long-term strategy to dismantle public schools (and public systems, writ large) and ultimately, undermine democracy. In this plenary, we are joined by movement leaders who are not just countering the far-right's attack on public education but are also fighting for a more just, multiracial democracy through organizing and narrative change.
Moderator(s): Dennis Chin Speakers: James Ford, Alex Ames, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Becky PringlePublic Education: The Foundation for Multiracial Democracy
The future of our society hinges on our ability to truly realize a just, equitable multiracial democracy and it must start with honest and fully funded multiracial public education. Neither our political nor education system were set up for this, but that is the promise of what our movements can achieve by uniting our communities across all the lines used to divide us.
Moderator(s): Dennis Chin Speakers: James Ford, Alex Ames, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Becky Pringle