Note: Stephen McNeil is Assistant Director for Peace-building Programs in AFSC's West region. On Aug. 25, 2013, after traveling from San Francisco and attending the 50th anniversary March on Washington to Realize the Dream, Stephen helped to organize a public event at Friends Meeting of Washington commemorating the life of Bayard Rustin, one of the march's chief organizers and a committed Quaker. - Madeline

Criminal Justice reform is catching fire in Quaker communities around the country, in large part due to the publication and popularization of Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow.” The facts embedded in every page are undeniable and horrifying, and illustrate a truth that many have known for years, that these injustices are tied directly to this country’s history of slavery. It’s as if the book has finally made it okay for Quakers (and others) to speak up against injustice and to face our country’s past.

Note: Vincent Harding was a close friend of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Note: Lori Fernald Khamala, program director of AFSC's Project Voice in Greensboro, North Carolina, shares the story of how AFSC partnered with FCNL and local Quakers to advocate for humane immigration reform this month. - Madeline

Even though Quaker organizations often work on the same issues and share the same values, it doesn’t mean we always work together as well as we should. But recently, a local collaboration between AFSC and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) netted big gains.

Note: Here is a brief exchange between Vincent Harding, an author of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech Beyond Vietnam and Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Illiff School of Theology in Denver, Colo. and Paul Ricketts, a Quaker from Indiana, that occurred during Harding’s book talk on “Hope and History: Why we must Share the Story of the Movement” at the

Laura Magnani, a member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, Calif., and the director of AFSC’s Bay Area Healing Justice program, tells the story of how local Quaker congregations accompanied a formerly incarcerated man back into the community.

Note: Max Carter, the Director of the Friends Center at Guilford College, has led study tours to Israel-Palestine in the summer for many years. He sent me this post after returning from his most recent trip. - Lucy