The creation of the tour was in response to a recent incident at the City College of New York’s (CCNY) Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center. In 1989, negotiations with the Students for Educational Rights group (SER) and the City University of New York (CUNY) administrators who oversee CCNY provided Room 3/201 for the use of students. SER named the center after the two activists, Assata Shakur (Black Panther Party) and Guillermo Morales (Puerto Rican Independence Movement), and in their spirit, transformed Room 3/201 into an autonomous student and community center committed to social justice. It had been so for 18 years until the night of December 13th, 2006. On that night, CUNY administrators stole the Center’s sign in an attempt to suppress the politically motivated minds of those who remained active in the center.
NEW YORK, NY (March 8, 2007) – The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement will add another page in history during its Morales Bienvenido / Assata is Welcome Here Tour 2007.The creation of the tour was in response to a recent incident at the City College of New York’s (CCNY) Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center. In 1989, negotiations with the Students for Educational Rights group (SER) and the City University of New York (CUNY) administrators who oversee CCNY provided Room 3/201 for the use of students. SER named the center after the two revolutionary activists, Assata Shakur (Black Panther Party) and Guillermo Morales (Puerto Rican Independence Movement), and in their spirit, transformed Room 3/201 into an autonomous student and community center committed to social justice. It had been so for 18 years until the night of December 13th, 2006. On that night, CUNY administrators stole the Center’s sign in an attempt to suppress the politically motivated minds of those who remained active in the center.A major obstacle in the movement to replace the center’s sign thus far, is the fact that the US education system does not provide adequate education to its people about the history of political activism in communities of color, therefore not many understand the significance of the homage paid in the center’s title. Thereby, along with their show of solidarity to the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center, participants in the tour will also demand strong education on this history for educational institutions nationwide.Coalitions of college students will show solidarity with the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center through participation in the Morales Bienvenido / Assata is Welcome Here Tour 2007. The tour will initially pass through several tri-state collegiate locations before touring nationally.The sponsor organization of the Morales Bienvenido / Assata is Welcome Here Tour 2007 is the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, whose mission is to promote unity, self-determination and to defend the human rights of people in communities across the African Diaspora and on the continent. For more information, please visit our website at www.mxgm.org / www.handsoffassata.com .