Leadership Seminars
Leadership Seminars offer participants opportunity to gain insights from diverse representatives of public, labor, education, business and tribal sectors. each class offers a presentation followed by questions and dialogue with Freedom Center students. A selection of our Leadership Seminars are available below.
Attorney and Civil Rights Leader Michael Nisperos
“We need the broadest—and the kindest, most generous--definition of what it is to be an American. One that encompasses and embraces all of us. One that we can share and take pride in, and one that is positive and not negative.” --Michael Nisperos Attorney and civil...
Ben Bartlett, Councilmember Berkeley District 3
“If you don’t like fires, and earthquakes and mayhem, you must stop fires and earthquakes and mayhem. You have the power to make change.” --Ben Bartlett. We are grateful to Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett for joining us for an online Leadership Seminar in...
CA Assemblymember Kevin McCarty
https://www.facebook.com/icleadership/videos/1114120482314643/?t=408
Active Civics Classes
The Martin Luther King jr. Freedom Center carries out active civics classes based in the values and principles of nonviolence as a way of life. Participants gain understanding of where to go, what room to be in, to get things done. They assist in the development of the personal agency to bring vision into reality.
The Freedom Center maintains three different courses. Each course has between 8 to 10 distinctive 10-week classes.
Civic Engagement
The first course, our entry course, develops one’s voice and an appreciation for the value of basic civic engagement. Topics covered include:
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Active Civics
Our second course is activist civics. This course develops an appreciation and understanding of the role of:
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Community Organizing
The third tier course is on community organizing. All three courses are embued with the science of nonviolence as a way of life. This course takes a deeper dive into movement building and organizational contributions. Students study the contributions of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Richard Gregg and others. They gain an understanding of organizational contributions, such as those of the Southern Christian Leadership Counference, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, the Montgomery Women’s Club, and the Black Panther Party.
Throughout the courses the students gain critical analysis skills, developing the capacity to identify a problem, trace why it exists, and identify solutions. This directly leads to the capacity to make contributions to legislative formulas and influence.