CIW’s Modern-Day Slavery Museum
UU St. Pete
THIS Sunday, March 21, noon to 5:00pm

The Modern-Day Slavery Museum was conceived of by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the human rights award-winning farmworker organization that has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six farm slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers. The museum is endorsed by many leading human rights and anti-slavery organizations, including Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International, respectively the largest human rights organization and the oldest human rights organization in the world.

The museum features a cargo truck that is a replica of the vehicle used in the enslavement of tomato pickers in Immokalee in 2007 -- the seventh forced labor conviction in Florida agriculture in recent years. Multimedia educational displays examine the continuous history of slavery in Florida: its roots, the reason it persists, and its solutions.

Here is an excerpt from Barry Estabrook's piece on the Modern-Day Slavery Museum posted on the Atlantic Monthly website, "Grown in Florida: Oranges and Modern Slavery". "... Slavery has a rich, time-honored, and unbroken history in Florida. The museum traces that story from the days of chattel slavery before the Civil War, through the press gangs of black convicts in the early 1900s and post-Depression-era poor whites portrayed in Edward R. Murrow's 1960 documentary Harvest of Shame, right up to today's migrant workers. And make no mistake: it's happening as you read this.”

The museum, which will be outside, is free and open to the public. In addition to visiting after service, please give a warm welcome to the CIW and the public who visit. Also invite your friends to join you. Regarding our youngest members: there are no violent or graphic pictures, but there is a lot of wording with the display. So our pre-schoolers and those in early elementary grades may not find it of interest. However, all are welcome.

There will be five CIW members accompanying the museum, and they need lodging. Please contact Karen Coale if you can accommodate one or more of these wonderful people.