Cover Story: These local activists are striving for change

(Christopher DeVargas/Staff/Photo Illustration)

Laura Martin & Les l ie Turner

Progressive Leadership All iance of Ne v ada

By C. Moon Reed O ne of the challenges of advocacy is bringing everybody together. At any given time, a variety of groups are working separately toward similar goals. These overlapping efforts can double the work and halve the results.

In 1994, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) was founded to turn competition into collaboration. Today, more than 30 Nevada groups are PLAN members, including the ACLU of Nevada, Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Gender Justice Nevada, the Great Basin Water Network, the Nevada Justice Association, Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club.

As PLAN’s executive director, Laura Martin helps oversee it all. “We’re advocating for bold ideas and policies that actually improve people’s lives,” Martin says. “We don’t do this in service to one political party. It really is in service to the community.”

Martin works to secure Black liberation, to ensure tribal sovereignty and to promote immigrants’ rights. “This is a place where people from all over the world have settled to call home, and it isn’t always as welcoming,” Martin says. “It’s our job to make this a place where everybody can thrive.”

PLAN’s big goals require unglamorous work behind the scenes. Martin stays busy with administrative tasks and fundraising. One of the highlights of her role, she says, is getting to collaborate and strategize with “some of the best organizers in the state. There’s so many different ways that we can just connect and build off our mission for PLAN.”

Martin credits her life path to growing up in a household that was always aware of current events. The catalyst in going from an observer to a participant was 9/11 and the Iraq War, which to ok place while Martin was attending college. “It gave me this pathway to join something bigger and to understand the importance of organizing and coalitions, because that was a scary time.”

As PLAN’s Justice Director, Leslie Turner spearheads the group’s Mass Liberation Project and is one of the founders of the Vegas Freedom Fund. Turner is also a fellow with Law for Black Lives.

Mass Liberation Project Nevada has worked to end cash bail and reinstate voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. Vegas Freedom Fund raises money to bail people out, helps with their cases, offers participatory defense, pays their bills and helps them find jobs.

In addition to offering needed social services, Turner calls bailing people “a tactic to highlight the injustices of the bail system and of the pretrial justice system in general.” Vegas Freedom Fund recently garnered attention for bailing out Black Lives Matter protesters, but the group has actually been around since 2018.

“The core of the work we do with the Mass Liberation Project is Black liberation,” Turner says. “Because this country is rooted in white supremacy and anti-blackness, undoing that and creating agency and liberation for Black people will bring liberation for all.”

Decarceration is personal for Turner, a single mother who has been in jail for an inability to pay traffic tickets. Turner also grew up in a Black Panther household where, she says, “Everything was centered around political education.”

Turner says too many people don’t understand how policy affects their daily lives, so she spends much of her time talking to them, giving them a political education, listening to their needs and helping them get involved.

Mass Liberation is also running a program called #CareNotCages. Turner says, “We’re basically setting the groundwork to show that if we care for our people, eventually we won’t need the carceral system.”

Nissa D. Tzun

Forced Trajectory Project

By Lesl ie Ventura I n 2009, Nissa D. Tzun cofounded the Forced Trajectory Project in Brooklyn, New York. A special needs teacher at the time, Tzun says “systemic racism was very blatant” within New York schools. “As an educator and an artist, I felt like I had to do more.”

Tzun jumped into anti-racism and anti-war organizing and worked as a photographer for the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition. When Tzun was asked to photograph a Long Island family whose loved one had been killed by police, the seed for FTP —a multimedia project documenting the effects of police violence—was planted.

“In meeting this family, I was really surprised by their narrative,” Tzun recalls. “It was completely different from the newspaper narrative.”

Tzun asked herself, “Is this a pattern, or is this just a fluke?” After studying different cases, Tzun discerned that there were all-too-common similarities in police brutality reports and the stories being shared with the public.

“The whole point of FTP is to shine a light on [families’] paths after their loved ones are killed,” Tzun says. “We hear the nationally known cases, but we don’t often know about the cases that happen in our ZIP code, and that has to do with the disconnect of mainstream journalism and the community.”

A master’s degree student in social work and journalism, Tzun launched an internship program in 2018 through UNLV’s department of Journalism and Media Studies. Though it’s currently on pause due to the pandemic, FTP has trained more than 10 interns to date.

As a whole, FTP advocates for roughly 20 different families that have been affected by police homicide or brutality, Tzun says.

Last year, FTP organized in protest of SB242, a bill designed to strengthen the rights of police officers under investigation. “It keeps their misconduct files away from the public eye,” Tzun says. “They’re sealed records, so that’s created a veil of secrecy around police violence.” Though the amendment to Nevada’s Peace Officers Bill of Rights passed, Tzun and the affected families strategized a response and testified against two sections of the bill—including one that would have allowed police to redact officers’ faces in body camera footage—ultimately getting them removed.

A two-time Davis-Putter scholar, Mass Liberation Project consultant, a Center for Community Change communications fellow and a 2019-2020 Jesse Lloyd O’Connor scholar, Tzun says keeping the public informed is more important now than ever before.

“Getting people to deeply listen to this information is challenging,” she says, adding that there’s little advocacy out there for families affected by police homicide or brutality. “Families don’t have access to funds to bury their loved ones. They don’t have access to mental health care if they need it.”

It’s for these reasons that Tzun calls community engagement “crucial.” “We believe that our work provides a unique portal to these narratives, and that those narratives need to be considered if we want to see an end to police violence,” Tzun says. “What’s missing is that connecting piece.”

For information on Forced Trajectory Project, follow @forcedtrajectory on Instagram.

New Era Las Vegas

Minister Stre tc h Sanders

By Lesl ie Ventura H is name is Vance Sanders, but in Las Vegas, he’s known as Minister Stretch. Born and raised in Chicago by a single mom, the 25-yearold minister, organizer and activist fled to Las Vegas in 2010, because, he says, the violence in his hometown was “getting out of hand.”

After a short stint playing college basketball in Washington, Sanders moved back to Las Vegas and began organizing full time. “I knew that my purpose was activism,” Sanders tells the Weekly.

In 2014, the then-19-year old minister started his first organization, All Shades United, a community outreach initiative focused on bringing people of all walks of life together. In 2015, Sanders organized his first protest, following the death of Sandra Bland inside a Texas prison; he has organized numerous protests and rallies since.

With All Shades United shelved for now, Sanders hopes to uplift the community through another project, New Era Las Vegas, which launched last year. Originating in Detroit, New Era has a nationwide goal of helping to create a Black-owned community through grassroots resources and collective buying power.

“We’re aiming to create Blackowned and operated schools, banks, grocery stores, hospitals, law offices, recreation centers and more,” the New Era Detroit website reads.

As the founding president of New Era’s Las Vegas chapter, Sanders has organized protests, hosted barbecues and fed community members in need. “New Era is living proof that if you just get out and do it, it can be done,” Sanders says.

To fight all-too-common activist fatigue, Sanders says he doesn’t think of his social justice work as a job. It’s his way of life. “Find ways to enjoy it,” he says. “When it becomes a job, you get burned out.”

With his busy schedule and tenacious work ethic, the newly married Sanders says he has to “be creative” when figuring out ways to take care of his family. When he isn’t organizing or giving sermons as a youth minister at Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, Sanders drives for Uber and Lyft, sells life insurance and is currently pursuing a real estate license.

But his dedication to greater causes never falters. “We have to vote. We have to organize. We have to be engaged in the community,” Sanders says. “I don’t want Black people—or people in general—in jail,” he says.

As a result, the young minister’s activism starts at a local level. Through the weekly Hood to Hood initiative, New Era Las Vegas members bring food, toiletries, COVID-19 supplies and more to different neighborhoods, alleviating basic needs. His goal, he says, is to create healthier, more connected communities.

“A protest means nothing when folks don’t come to the protest because they don’t have food to eat,” Sanders says. “Poverty, capitalism, homelessness— these were issues that most of us did not really protest, so I wanted to change my perspective. I wanted to make sure our mission was not just about fighting for individual races to be free, but fighting for people in general. We can’t defeat the race struggle [first]. We have to defeat the class struggle.”

While some people are just waking up to the realities of systemic racism, Sanders says Black liberation has always been his goal: “To liberate Black people, oppressed people, and all people who want to be part of a great beloved community, as Dr. King described,” he says. “Everything we do is about the future.”

By C. Las Vegas NAACP with the small-scale chalRoxann Mc Co y lenges of daily life in Southern Nevada: employment issues, discrimination, harassment, C.Moon Reed N AACP President Roxann McCoy never set out to become a social justice the way students of color are disproportionately suspended. She recently worked to get Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore to step down from her position as mayor pro tem. organizer. She had a regular Though Black Lives Matter job in the mortgage business. has recently exploded into the But it was there McCoy found national zeitgeist, McCoy and a reason to go into advocacy. “I her organization have been realized that there were not a toiling “in the trenches” for lot of African American homeyears, especially in terms of owners,” McCoy says. Digging advocating for police reform. further, she discovered educaMcCoy says that through their tional disparities and systemic conversations, Metro police injustices. have restricted neck restraints

“My heart just lit up to say, to the last level of force. “We ‘What can I do to help make a really wanted them to ban it difference there,’” McCoy says. all together, but they at least “That’s what brought me to moved the needle,” McCoy the NAACP. They were being says, adding that the NAACP changemakers in this commuwas instrumental in demandnity, and I wanted to be part of ing police body cameras. the change.” The current moment has

Fast-forward, and McCoy given McCoy a chance to zoom has spent 12 years with the Las out and take stock of all that Vegas NAACP, the past seven the NAACP has accomplished as president. She oversees the here. “In Las Vegas, our NAACP local branch of the organizais light years ahead of what the tion, which fights for social, other agencies across the counpolitical, educational, health try are doing in terms of what and environmental justice. The we are demanding of our police group works to achieve equity departments,” McCoy says. for all people of color. McCoy says she has found

“It really is a huge job,” McCoy that the best way to achieve says. “I don’t think that you success is through buildcould really get the total gravity ing relationships across the of it unless you’re in it, because I community. “We don’t have to didn’t until I was in it.” agree … but we have to sit at the

Even as she helps the table and have the tough conorganization navigate such versations in order to move the big-picture issues as today’s needle,” McCoy says. “We’ve historic social justice movebeen willing to have the tough ment, McCoy is helping locals conversations.”

Jameelah Lewis and members of her team

Clockwise from top left:

Courtney Jones,

Shanice Edwards,

Micajah Daniels and Camisha Fagan

Young Las Vegas activists are helping the movement maintain momentum

By Lesl ie Ventura • photographs b y Christopher Devargas

“When people ask me how I got this women,” she recalls. “I’d never been ever, Smith wanted to help in whatever ization of police in Washington, D.C.; far, I say, ‘I don’t know,’” 24-year-old a part of anything like that. I gained way she could. they’ve protested for immigration Jameelah Lewis says. “Statistically, friendships and experiences. I learned Despite their five-year age gap, reform and gun violence prevention the world was against me.” what it is to truly love other people and Lewis and Smith represent the many legislation; and now, they’re work

A second-generation Trinidadian how to cultivate a community.” young Las Vegans helping to maintain ing on bringing a Black Lives Matter who grew up in Reno, Lewis says her Nineteen-year-old Desiree Smith Black Lives Matter momentum on a chapter to Nevada. mother pushed her to beat the odds. wanted to get involved in the Black local level. “We all met as part of BLM at UNLV After moving to Las Vegas to attend Lives Matter movement in high In 2018, Lewis joined the Mass Liband are currently part of a collective UNLV in 2016, Lewis joined the UNLV school, but the Legacy High grad says eration Project, where activist Leslie working to start [a chapter here],” NAACP, and eventually, the univerher mother didn’t feel comfortable Turner (see Page 14), became her menLewis says. “We’re in that networking sity’s newly formed Black Lives Matter permitting her to attend protests at tor. Lewis and her co-organizers have stage, getting people from different chapter. such a young age. After the May killing seen activist Angela Davis talk in perorganizations and spectrums to come

“I joined a group run by Black of George Floyd in Minneapolis, howson; they’ve lobbied for the demilitartogether and organize on behalf of

With all their might For more information, follow @more.than.a.hashtaglv and the Rape Crisis Center @thercclv on Instagram and @UNLV_BLM on Twitter.

DESIREE NICOLE SMITH

and members of her team Clockwise from top left: Heaven Menendez, Kamyha Stevenson, Nyles Fleming and Destiny Arianna Smith

Black Lives Matter.” people for no reason,” Smith says of names of people who have been killed ment officials to “start taking accountA former intern for Congresswoman the police. by police, on the back. “We’ve been ability—[and] that’s not just police Dina Titus, Lewis was propelled into Smith organized her first protest, selling them for $20 a shirt, and giving brutality,” she says. “It’s so much the city’s social justice efforts, which with roughly 50 people, on June 6 100% of the profit to victims’ families,” deeper than that. It goes into unemeventually led to her employment at outside the Venetian. The protest Smith says. ployment, housing and education.” the Rape Crisis Center as a Prison Rape ended peacefully, Smith says, and While Lewis says her arrest was Ultimately, #MoreThanAHashtag Elimination Act (PREA) advocate. since then, she has been pouring her traumatizing, it also forced the activstrives to push activism beyond social Despite her advocacy work, Lewis energy into her newly founded group ist to reflect on something bigger: the media. “You can tweet about it all was arrested during one of the first #MoreThanAHashtag, which has power of community healing. “It’s only you want, but you actually have to put BLM protests on the Strip in May. a small but growing social media pushed me to fight more,” says Lewis, in the work,” Smith says. “You can Smith describes the reaction to those presence. who organized a peaceful public rally hashtag, but donate, sign petitions and early protests as “violent. They were That group recently released a run on July 11. protest, too. Go to city hall meetings. tear-gassing us and started arresting of logo-emblazoned T-shirts, with the Smith says her goal is to get governCall your local representatives.” With all their might

FACES OF THE MOVEMENT

People hold signs during a June 24 news conference at Desert Pines High School, organized by Make the Road Nevada. (Steve Marcus/Staff) Other groups to know

Battle Born Progress (Miranda Alam/ Special to Weekly)

BY LESLIE VENTURA

Battle Born Progress Make It Work Nevada Make the Road Nevada

■ Battle Born Progress is a progressive, nonpartisan, nonpro t organization that “empowers, engages and mobilizes Nevada voters to build a state where everyone has a fair opportunity to succeed,” according to its website. Through political advocacy, annual in-person trainings and raising community awareness about political issues, Battle Born Progress attempts to make Nevada a welcome home for all. battlebornprogress.org ■ Make It Work Nevada works to center the voices of Black women on economic, racial and reproductive justice issues, along with a ordable child care, paid family leave, paid sick days, pay equity and more. Led by executive director Erika Washington and born out of the national Make It Work Campaign, the policy-driven organization provides advocacy and education supporting “the long-term health and vitality” of Black families. makeitworknevada.org ■ Make the Road Nevada is focused on social justice, immigrant justice and economic justice, along with building “the power of Latinx and workingclass communities of color to achieve dignity and justice” through organizing and education. By elevating the voices of working-class immigrant communities in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Make the Road Nevada encourages all Nevadans to work together for a better future. maketheroadnv.org

(Photo Illustration)

Nevada Minority Health and Equity Coalition

■ Nevada Minority Health and Equity Coalition works to ensure that all Nevada residents lead a healthy, productive life by eliminating health disparities through research, education and advocacy and by promoting access to health care services for minority populations. The coalition envisions a future where preventable and unjust frameworks within the health care industry no longer exist, and “underserved individuals and communities” have access to “sustainable and equitable” treatment and care. nmhec.org