Some of the 2014 activities of Not In Our Town earned mentioned in the December 31, 2014 issue of the Town Topics.

Freedom Summer

2014 marked the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer and many in Princeton recalled their participation in the 1964 campaign to register African-Americans in Mississippi to vote. In  November, civil rights activist Robert Moses came to the John Witherspoon Middle School to launch the traveling exhibition “Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Exhibit for Students” and speak to the community. One of the most influential black leaders of the civil rights movement, Mr. Moses initiated and organized voter registration drives, sit-ins, and Freedom Schools for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He led the campaign to bring a thousand volunteers — primarily enthusiastic young white supporters — to Mississippi to encourage African-American voters to register to vote, to provide education via summer schools, and to convene a more representative delegation to attend the Democratic National Convention.

Protests, Discussions, And Demonstrations

Demonstrations by teachers and some 20 placard-carrying protestors highlighting the issue of wage theft on Nassau Street in May, were followed by an August 24 rally protesting the fatal shooting by a white police officer of the unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The organization Not in Our Town (NIOT) offered concerned locals a chance to continue to speak about racism after the rally at the Princeton Public Library. Co-sponsored by NIOT and the Princeton Public Library, the special event, “Continuing Conversation on Race,” aimed to provide a safe and confidential place for frank and meaningful discussion in the wake of the rally that had seen well over a 100 protesters march down Nassau and Witherspoon Streets to Hinds Plaza. Before the end of the year, Princeton residents took to the streets again to protest racial injustice.