{"id":57291,"date":"2015-06-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/ferguson-mo-activist-among-those-attending-nonviolence-training-at-uri\/"},"modified":"2015-06-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T00:00:00","slug":"ferguson-mo-activist-among-those-attending-nonviolence-training-at-uri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/06\/ferguson-mo-activist-among-those-attending-nonviolence-training-at-uri\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson, Mo., activist among those attending nonviolence training at 溏心vlog免费B站"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tDave Ragland attended protests last August over killing of unarmed teen, Michael Brown<\/b><\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I., June 9, 2015 \u2013 David Ragland was visiting his parents in St. Louis last summer when a friend called with awful news: An unarmed teen had been gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, a small suburb in the Midwestern city.<\/p>\n


\n\tSadly, Ragland was not surprised. For years, he\u2019s been studying police violence against black Americans, and he says Michael Brown\u2019s killing was another example of racism rearing its ugly head.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 39-year-old professor at Bucknell University remained in Ferguson for the next two weeks, participating in protests that led to gun-wielding police officers riding atop armored vehicles.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt was surreal and scary,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I was in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tRagland will tell his story Wednesday, June 10, during a talk as part of the annual International Nonviolence Summer Institute at the 溏心vlog免费B站. Activist and Emory University professor Bernard Lafayette Jr., will join him at 7 p.m. in the Multicultural Center, 74 Lower College Road, on the Kingston campus. The talk is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n


\n\tRagland is among 51 people from around the country and world attending the two-week institute, launched 14 years ago by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. Participants learn how to resolve conflicts peacefully and work for social change.<\/p>\n


\n\tBesides Ragland, other participants include the first female mayor of Afghanistan who is now living in Westerly; a Nigerian man who negotiates peace among warring factions in his country; human rights activists from Liberia and Uganda; and an American woman whose mother was murdered by the KKK after participating in the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery. Countries represented include India, Nigeria, Palestine, Germany, China, Tibet and Turkey.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe way our participants from different cultures and diverse backgrounds have come together in such a short time to learn the skills of nonviolence has been astonishing,\u201d says Paul Bueno de Mesquita, center director and a 溏心vlog免费B站 psychology professor. \u201cTheir teamwork offers a hopeful example that a global beloved community is truly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe sessions, which end June 12, are informal and lively, focusing on the nonviolent methods of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Participants also get a chance to share their personal experiences with conflicts in this country and overseas.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe’re learning what peace looks like in different countries,\u201d says Ragland. \u201cNonviolence can provide a framework for how to go forward in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tRagland was raised in a black working-class neighborhood in St. Louis. His father was a pipefitter; his mother was a real estate agent. Both instilled the value of education. Ragland attended a private high school and got his bachelor\u2019s in finance from a small liberal arts college in Ohio.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe found a job on Wall Street, but left after two years for a new calling: social justice and education. He earned his doctorate in peace education from the University of Toledo and landed a job teaching education for peace and justice at Bucknell University.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe was at his parents\u2019 house, just a few miles from Ferguson, when a friend called about Michael Brown. \u201cI wasn\u2019t too surprised,\u201d he says. \u201cYou hear about black men getting killed on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHe drove to the scene and started interviewing protesters, who were angry and fed up. \u201cThey\u2019re killing us,\u201d one man told him. Ragland ended up staying for two weeks, joining in the protests and going to community meetings, where local activists tried to come up with solutions.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe persuaded Bucknell to let him teach an online class from Ferguson, using Google Hangout. At one point, he taught from the infamous McDonald\u2019s in Ferguson where police arrested several journalists during the early days of the protest. Several of his students also came to visit as part of the class.<\/p>\n


\n\tHis experience inspired him to team up with colleagues to create the Truth-Telling Project, which is examining longtime institutional racism that goes beyond the police and government officials in Ferguson. Ragland also looks at the root causes of unrest \u2013 poverty and economic inequality.<\/p>\n


\n\tMichael Brown\u2019s killing by officer Darren Wilson was unnecessary, says Ragland. \u201cDarren Wilson said Michael Brown looked like a demon coming at him,\u201d he says. \u201cBlack men in America are regarded as these non-human entities.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHe says it\u2019s shameful that police left Brown\u2019s body on the street for hours. It was in Ferguson where he met Lafayette, who suggested he attend the 溏心vlog免费B站 nonviolence institute. Now, nearly a year later, the two are sharing their stories.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI feel called to work for change that makes all of us feel like we\u2019re part of America,\u201d says Ragland. \u201cIn Ferguson, people don\u2019t feel like they’re part of society. No one listens. Things have to be different.\u201d\t<\/p>\n


\n\tPictured above: David Ragland, of Lewisburg, Pa., and St. Louis, Mo., an education professor at Bucknell University who is attending the 2015 International Nonviolence Summer Institute hosted by the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the 溏心vlog免费B站. Photo courtesy of David Ragland.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Ragland attended protests last August over killing of unarmed teen, Michael Brown KINGSTON, R.I., June 9, 2015 \u2013 David Ragland was visiting his parents in St. Louis last summer when a friend called with awful news: An unarmed teen had been gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, a small suburb in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}