Two Buffalo natives are wrapping up the first run of a summer program for young adults on Buffalo’s East Side that focuses on social justice issues.
Buffalo native James Coughlin, who cofounded the Buffalo Summer Freedom School with University of Pittsburgh professor and fellow Buffalo native Tiana Wilson, said helping young activists understand Buffalo's history is an important step in the group's program.
“It's our attempts to educate aspiring activists and youth about social and racial justice issues specific to Buffalo, and also to ensure that our students are connected to activists that are already doing the work," Coughlin said.
Twenty students from the East Side between the ages of 16 and 24 participated in the first run of the Freedom School this summer. The students met every Saturday for six weeks at the Frank E. Merriweather Library, where they discussed topics ranging from mass incarceration and environmental racism to gentrification and Buffalo’s role in the Underground Railroad. At the end of the program, the students published a zine featuring 16 interviews they conducted with local activists. Wilson said that the project was supposed to give students the tools they needed to advocate for their communities.
“With the collective zine project, we were able to do two things right. Start the conversation between the young folks and the community leaders who have been doing the work in Buffalo and will continue to do the work in Buffalo, but also to introduce our students into the kind of active social justice scene in Buffalo," Wilson said.
The Freedom School was born out of the campaign to exonerate Geraldine Pointer. Pointer and the owner of the leftist bookstore where she worked were arrested in 1967 on drug charges and other charges that she says were fabricated. The prosecutors’ main witness later said in an affidavit that he helped the police frame Pointer and bookshop owner Martin Sostre in order to get out of jail.
Sostre was granted clemency in the 70s and passed away in 2015. Pointer is now working to overturn her conviction with help from Coughlin.
Pointer attended the freedom school’s closing day and said she was honored to inspire the program.
“It means a lot to me," Pointer said. "It makes me feel like I haven't been forgotten.”
Coughlin and Wilson are hoping to offer an expanded program in future years.