The Micah Institute is an interfaith “think/act tank” that is actively mobilizing a faith-rooted movement for justice. Micah was launched in 2010 as an initiative of New York Theological Seminary Micah has a staff of one person (the director), assisted by our sponsor, The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) and its members. Inspired by the Hebrew prophet Micah’s call to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God,” the Micah Institute educates and trains New York City faith leader members on issues of systemic racism, social justice and economic equity; it equips them to serve as change agents for social transformation and movement-building, and to act as a powerful coalition of organizers and advocates, transforming New York City toward a more just and equitable future.
By building relational power from the deepest wells of faith, Micah has been an influential and consistent advocate for a living wage for all New Yorkers, for the rights of all immigrants, and the rights of racial, ethnic and religious minorities. In all of these areas, it has helped to achieve visible progress in the lived experience of ordinary New Yorkers. For example:
The Living Wage Campaign:
Despite opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Micah and its coalition allies, especially the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, prodded the City of New York to enact the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act in 2012. This law requires employers receiving significant economic development or other assistance from the City to pay no less than the living wage to their employees at the project site. Micah then advocated for, and Mayor de Blasio signed in 2014, an executive order broadening the applicability of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act and raising the Living Wage rate, which is now adjusted annually.
Drawing on its grassroots leadership in Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, Micah’s clergy leaders of color, including Rev. Michael A. Walrond, Jr. of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem and Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera of the Latino Pastoral Action Center, played a pivotal role in convening mass meetings for justice in all five boroughs and placing political pressure on their City Council Members in order to see Living Wages become a reality in New
York City. Police Killings of Civilians:
Responding to a morally powerful and vigorous campaign by Micah and its allies in the wake of the chokehold killing of Eric Garner by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, for which a Staten Island grand jury refused to indict Officer Pantaleo, Governor Cuomo in 2015 signed an executive order appointing a special prosecutor to take charge of cases involving civilians killed by police officers.
Ending NYPD surveilence of Muslims after 9/11
Micah also played a role in ending Post-9/11 Surveillance of Muslims by the NYPD. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the New York Police Department established a Demographics Unit whose mission was to conduct covert surveillance in heavily Muslim neighborhoods. Through a “Muslim Mapping” project, the Demographics Unit eavesdropped on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped. To most Muslims, these activities were a sign that the police viewed their every action with suspicion. The police mapped communities inside and outside the city, logging where civilians in traditional Islamic clothes ate meals and documenting their lunch-counter conversations. Since many of the Imams who were members of the Micah Faith Proposal From The Micah Institute Faith Leaders’Table were concerned about the undercover operatives and confidential informants in their Mosques, The Micah Institute joined the Arab American Association of New York and the Interfaith Center of New York in a campaign to end the NYPD’s surveillance of the Muslim community. These advocates met with NYPD Chief Bratton in early 2014 and he agreed to end the surveillance program so that our Muslim sisters and brothers can live and worship in peace.
Standing with immigrants against deportations:
Micah has been one of the main advocates for just treatment for immigrants in New York City and in the entire country. In recent months especially, Micah has called to members, both clergy and lay people, to join in the very important fight to stop the deportation of Ravi Ragbir, executive director of The New Sanctuary Coalition in New York. The government's efforts to remove him is part of a nation-wide campaign to eliminate immigrant activist leaders.
Community Visits Project:
Beginning in 2017, Micah has organized day-long visits to various neighborhoods of New York City. The clergy and faith-rooted activists who join these visits are exposed to both the powerful diversity and the sometimes dire problems faced by faith communities in these neighborhoods. Bus tours take participants to historic sites and centers of contemporary activism. Along the way, meetings with local clergy, representing the faith-diversity of New York, educate participants on the important issues being tackled by these highly motivated communities. These visits are already beginningto creating new networks among faith-rooted organizers and leaders in New York City.
Micah’s role in the greater community:
The value that Micah brings to its social justice campaigns does not lie only in bringing greater numbers to a fight. It is also to be found in the long experience of its members in doing this work; experience which built on that of earlier generations of faith-rooted justice advocates like Jane Benedict, the Berrigan Brothers, Rev. Norman Eddy, Mama Leo, and Rev. William Augustus Jones who taught goals, strategies, and tactics of faith-rooted organizers to the current generation. Micah is serious about mentoring a new generation of faith-rooted advocates for the long haul.
Communities most impacted by economic oppression, police violence, and generalized suspicion of criminal intent, may not always understand how to make themselves heard, in an American political context, when they demand change. Sometimes they have a limited fund of experience of their own to draw upon in advocating for social change. And those in power to whom their demands are addressed need to know that these often marginalized communities do not stand alone; that other voices, too, insist that they be heard and heeded. Micah provides a bridge between grassroots community leaders and the gatekeepers of city policy and planning, in order to see concrete gains in our demand to reduce poverty, end racism, support immigrants and nourish our urban environment. In contrast to transactional forms of “self-interest” based organizing, Micah embodies a love-based transformational model for organizing that contends that how we organize that treating people with love and respect is as important as the results of our organizing.
By building relational power from the deepest wells of faith, Micah has been an influential and consistent advocate for a living wage for all New Yorkers, for the rights of all immigrants, and the rights of racial, ethnic and religious minorities. In all of these areas, it has helped to achieve visible progress in the lived experience of ordinary New Yorkers. For example:
The Living Wage Campaign:
Despite opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Micah and its coalition allies, especially the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, prodded the City of New York to enact the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act in 2012. This law requires employers receiving significant economic development or other assistance from the City to pay no less than the living wage to their employees at the project site. Micah then advocated for, and Mayor de Blasio signed in 2014, an executive order broadening the applicability of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act and raising the Living Wage rate, which is now adjusted annually.
Drawing on its grassroots leadership in Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, Micah’s clergy leaders of color, including Rev. Michael A. Walrond, Jr. of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem and Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera of the Latino Pastoral Action Center, played a pivotal role in convening mass meetings for justice in all five boroughs and placing political pressure on their City Council Members in order to see Living Wages become a reality in New
York City. Police Killings of Civilians:
Responding to a morally powerful and vigorous campaign by Micah and its allies in the wake of the chokehold killing of Eric Garner by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, for which a Staten Island grand jury refused to indict Officer Pantaleo, Governor Cuomo in 2015 signed an executive order appointing a special prosecutor to take charge of cases involving civilians killed by police officers.
Ending NYPD surveilence of Muslims after 9/11
Micah also played a role in ending Post-9/11 Surveillance of Muslims by the NYPD. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the New York Police Department established a Demographics Unit whose mission was to conduct covert surveillance in heavily Muslim neighborhoods. Through a “Muslim Mapping” project, the Demographics Unit eavesdropped on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped. To most Muslims, these activities were a sign that the police viewed their every action with suspicion. The police mapped communities inside and outside the city, logging where civilians in traditional Islamic clothes ate meals and documenting their lunch-counter conversations. Since many of the Imams who were members of the Micah Faith Proposal From The Micah Institute Faith Leaders’Table were concerned about the undercover operatives and confidential informants in their Mosques, The Micah Institute joined the Arab American Association of New York and the Interfaith Center of New York in a campaign to end the NYPD’s surveillance of the Muslim community. These advocates met with NYPD Chief Bratton in early 2014 and he agreed to end the surveillance program so that our Muslim sisters and brothers can live and worship in peace.
Standing with immigrants against deportations:
Micah has been one of the main advocates for just treatment for immigrants in New York City and in the entire country. In recent months especially, Micah has called to members, both clergy and lay people, to join in the very important fight to stop the deportation of Ravi Ragbir, executive director of The New Sanctuary Coalition in New York. The government's efforts to remove him is part of a nation-wide campaign to eliminate immigrant activist leaders.
Community Visits Project:
Beginning in 2017, Micah has organized day-long visits to various neighborhoods of New York City. The clergy and faith-rooted activists who join these visits are exposed to both the powerful diversity and the sometimes dire problems faced by faith communities in these neighborhoods. Bus tours take participants to historic sites and centers of contemporary activism. Along the way, meetings with local clergy, representing the faith-diversity of New York, educate participants on the important issues being tackled by these highly motivated communities. These visits are already beginningto creating new networks among faith-rooted organizers and leaders in New York City.
Micah’s role in the greater community:
The value that Micah brings to its social justice campaigns does not lie only in bringing greater numbers to a fight. It is also to be found in the long experience of its members in doing this work; experience which built on that of earlier generations of faith-rooted justice advocates like Jane Benedict, the Berrigan Brothers, Rev. Norman Eddy, Mama Leo, and Rev. William Augustus Jones who taught goals, strategies, and tactics of faith-rooted organizers to the current generation. Micah is serious about mentoring a new generation of faith-rooted advocates for the long haul.
Communities most impacted by economic oppression, police violence, and generalized suspicion of criminal intent, may not always understand how to make themselves heard, in an American political context, when they demand change. Sometimes they have a limited fund of experience of their own to draw upon in advocating for social change. And those in power to whom their demands are addressed need to know that these often marginalized communities do not stand alone; that other voices, too, insist that they be heard and heeded. Micah provides a bridge between grassroots community leaders and the gatekeepers of city policy and planning, in order to see concrete gains in our demand to reduce poverty, end racism, support immigrants and nourish our urban environment. In contrast to transactional forms of “self-interest” based organizing, Micah embodies a love-based transformational model for organizing that contends that how we organize that treating people with love and respect is as important as the results of our organizing.
Micah Institute
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