Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

For updates on Stowe Center programs and events, sign up for our enews at http://harrietbeecherstowe.org/email.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December 10: Human Rights Day


In 1950, the UN General Assembly proclaimed December 10 of every year as Human Rights Day in an effort to raise awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human rights "as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." Later, in 1993, a World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna developed the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action which renewed the effort to protect human rights globally. 


On this Human Rights Day, we share two recent news stories about threats against human rights around the world:

TheJewishPress.com
"Witholding Workers’ IDs a Form of Saudi Slavery"
by Yori Yanover
(Includes an interesting comparison between withholding worker identification in Saudi Arabia, slavery, and Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin)

GOOD
"Giving Women in South Africa a Way Out of Sex Work"
by Rosie Spinks



For all the Twitter users out there, we also recommend that you follow Sites of Conscience (Sites of (@SitesConscience1h) which today asked "How do the lessons from the past help us address human rights issues today?" Check out their Twitter feed and also look up #HR2day for more on human rights today. 

What are your reactions to the above articles? What do you see as the status of human rights today? How can organizations like the Stowe Center use "lessons from the past" to "help us address human rights issues today?" Share your comments below!
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