Nehemiah

Justice for a New Day is a 9-week community education course that explores the history, policies, and human impact of incarceration in America. Through presentations by community leaders, researchers, practitioners, and people with lived experience, participants examine the historical roots of mass incarceration, the realities of the criminal legal system today, and the opportunities to build a more just, healthy, and safe future.

Our purpose is to understand how incarceration has shaped our communities, why Wisconsin continues to experience some of the nation's deepest racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and what role each of us can play in creating meaningful change. By grounding ourselves in history, listening to lived experience, and learning from one another, we can move beyond misconceptions toward solutions that strengthen individuals, families, and communities.

Designed for individuals, organizations, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of justice, health, and community well-being, Justice for a New Day equips participants with the knowledge needed to become informed advocates and leaders for lasting change.

Register: https://courses.justifiedanger.com/component/eventbooking/course-registration/course-event-tests/jfand/224?Itemid=762

From Harry Hawkins, Nehemiah CEO and President:
Yesterday, I had the honor of supporting the Police Civilian Oversight Board during a press conference https://www.youtube.com/live/mlDfKCsu8GQsi=3dQCokgaFhPcmTEo focused on what we need now to hold our city accountable. At this press conference, other community leaders shared a little history of the PCOB, why it’s needed, and what we are demanding from the city. Most importantly, we are seeking to fully fund the work of the PCOB and the Office of the Independent Police Monitor (they share an annual budget) and to keep the process community-driven, community-led, and independent.

Nehemiah is one of seven local nonprofits that can nominate someone to serve on the PCOB. I was there to show support from Nehemiah, and especially to follow the leadership of the women creating pathways to transformation, Aeiramique Glass, the Independent Monitor, and Maia Pearson, the Chair of the PCOB.
If you are wondering how you can help in this time of community crisis, mourning, and demand for justice, supporting the work of the Independent Police Monitor is a great way to start.

Here are two ways you can make a difference!

Email your alders to let them know you support approving a budget of at least 1% of the overall (about $98.5Million) Madison Police Department budget for the Office of the Independent Monitor, which is the minimum recommended by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (https://www.nacole.org/).

Click here to find out who your alder is and their contact information: https://www.cityofmadison.com/council/council-members/find-my-alder
Read the reports already issued by the Independent Police Monitor.

Learn the history of the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and PCOB by reading the final report from the 2019 Madison Police Department Policy & Procedure Review Ad hoc Committee.

Yesterday, a Black man in Madison was chased, hit by a police SUV, tased, stomped, fatally shot at close range, and then handcuffed. The call that started it all didn't report an imminent violent threat, it reported a man "checking vehicles."

A man on a bike. We need to sit with that.
We are angry, and we will not soften that anger into something more comfortable for others to hear.

De-escalation is possible. We see it used, routinely, for people who look like the officers doing the escalating. What happened yesterday was a choice, made in an instant, but shaped by decades of a system that has taught officers, and all of us, that Black people are threats first and people second.

This is not new. This liberal, progressive, "best place to live" city leads the nation in racial disparity. This is the same story Madison's Black community has been telling for years in community, in council meetings, in vigils, in data reports on racial disparities that most of our neighbors read as statistics instead of as humans, families, and children. This is what those statistics look like when they stop being numbers.

Black Madisonians carry an exhaustion that never lifts.

A Black father and leader in this city explained that he'd lost a few pounds on a weight loss journey. When we congratulated him, he said it felt like throwing a deck chair off a sinking ship. A real accomplishment that changes nothing about what you’re still standing on. That's what it's like to live and work in Madison as a Black man, leader, and father of Black children. That’s what this feels like today. Every day. Still.

To our white neighbors, colleagues, and friends: this is not the moment for silence dressed up as respect. This is the moment to stop being quiet allies and start being visible ones. Listen to what Black Madisonians are telling you, without needing to be convinced first. Learn the history that makes this pattern predictable, instead of shocking.

Act! Show up, speak up, hold our institutions accountable, and don't let this news cycle move on before there is any accountability.

Our hearts go out to the family of Corey Ruiz.

No justice? No peace. We mean it.



Photo by Angela Major/WPR

Get a better understanding of the disabled experience from the perspective of racial justice. In partnership with UW-Madison Professor Jesse Waggoner, Race and Disability is a new 2-part course offering history and practical engagement tips that you can take into your daily life to build a better community.
Register for both sessions for Only $50: https://courses.justifiedanger.com/component/eventbooking/course-registration/course-event-tests/race-disability-2-part-workshop/221?Itemid=762

How are Nehemiah and The Center for Black Excellence and Culture related to one another? Nehemiah President Harry Hawkins answers this question and gives some background on the separate organizations.

https://nehemiah.org/2026/06/29/vision-siblings/

A special Juneteenth message from Harry Hawkins.

Black Freedom is Freedom for Everyone: You Better Get Some of this Black Joy! Black Freedom is Freedom for Everyone: You Better Get Some of this Black Joy!  There are two realities I see digitized and echoed through social media, […]