The Jackson City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday, December 16th to create a Human Rights Charter and Commission that will support Jackson becoming the first Human Rights City in the historic South. The passage of this resolution will help the City of Jackson better confront many of the social ills that confront our society, such as the abuse of state power, police brutality, and inhumane policies that lead to the discrimination, inequality, and gross inequities experienced by Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, workers, Muslims and other religious minorities, the homeless and members of the LGBTQI community amongst others.

This resolution is a victory for the people of Jackson and the Human Rights City Campaign organized by Cooperation Jackson, and supported by the Jackson People’s Assembly, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights, the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, and the Jackson Branch of the NAACP. The initiative was supported nationally by the US Human Rights Network, the Praxis Project, the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, and the Black Left Unity Network.

The Human Rights Institute, a part of the Lumumba Center for Economic Democracy located at 939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS 39203, will lead a people-centered process of drafting and constructing the Human Rights Charter and Commission over the course of the next year.