Category: Updates

SPARK interviews Marilynn Winn about family, tips for mothers, and how our society can support mothers and families beyond Mama’s Day.

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Marilynn Winn

Marilynn Winn
Photograph: Ingemar Smith

We begin our Strong Families Mama’s Day campaign by honoring Marilynn Winn. Ms. Winn is the extraordinary strategist behind Atlanta 9to5’s Ban the Box campaign that ensures employment opportunities for Georgia’s formerly incarcerated family members. She is also starting a new organization called Women on the Rise led by women impacted by incarceration both in and outside of prison.

We celebrate Winn’s wisdom and loving energy with an intimate sit-down interview where we discuss family, tips for mothers, and how our society can support mothers and families beyond the holiday.

SPARK: How do you define family and who is in yours?
MW: Right now, my family is my mother, my daughter, my son and my 6 grandkids.

When I think of how a family should be, the way I would love for it to be, I think of my grandma’s family. She had 14 kids and they all stayed in the same house. They all used that one bathroom and ate at that one table.

I visited for months at a time in Tuskegee, Alabama. My grandmother worked at a fish market, but she couldn’t afford the fish. She bought the red snapper fish heads and made a stew with grits and pork & beans. I used to turn my nose up at her dishes, but I learned to enjoy what my grandma supplied for us.

I really enjoyed those days because I knew my grandmother, aunts, uncles loved me. Genuine connections with my family and friends are the most important to me.

SPARK: What keeps you smiling as a mother in the movement and what do you need from the movement?
MW: I believe one day we will make a difference in so many Black people’s lives. They will be able to apply for a job, to get housing, to get benefits, to start our own jobs. Some people who have records can’t even get a professional license for certain entrepreneurial jobs—in other words, we can’t even hire ourselves!

And I smile because I am a formerly incarcerated person and mother starting this campaign with other mothers, other families impacted by incarceration. I have served my time, so you can’t hold it over my head! I just feel unstoppable. I just need more formerly incarcerated people to feel that way.

200 people return to Atlanta alone from prison every month. If I can get those people to feel like there is hope, we can do so much! When they can see a room of other formerly incarcerated people who are working, making moves—they will say, “I want to be a part of this.” So, that’s what I am hoping for and that’s what keeps me going.

SPARK: How can Ban The Box help people have the families they want?
MW: It will stop recidivism, meaning families stay together longer. Children will also have parents who can supply their immediate needs, and I think every family deserves financial stability. http://9to5.org/blog-post-winning-the-battle-to-ban-the-box/

SPARK: What tips do you have for mothers or anyone leading a family?
MW: I felt guilty as a mother for being formerly incarcerated. There were times I should have put my foot down with my children, but I felt like I owed them something because I had been away. Now, I love myself enough to say “no” when I have to, to say I deserve dignity. I didn’t leave you by choice. I did what I had to do to take care of you. So my tip is to remember that you are always a mom.

Also, I wish that all mothers who don’t feel love, feel love by loving themselves first. Once you love yourself, you are able to receive love. Every day, learn to love you.

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We end this interview with a quote from Winn reminding us that we must remain resilient and that change is always possible. “I used to say that my bad times outweighed my good times. Now, I can say my good times outweigh my bad times. I could have been in prison. I could have been dead. I could have been a lot of things, but at 62, I am still here, I am happy, and I am making a difference here in Atlanta.”

This year, consider supporting Atlanta 9to5’s Ban the Box campaign striving to put formerly incarcerated mothers and all people back in the workforce. Financial stability and emotional dignity are two gifts few would turn down this Mama’s Day. SPARK works to bridge the intersections between economic justice, reproductive justice and mass incarceration. Let women know that you support our autonomy and respect our leadership by donating to SPARK.

This Mama’s Day, We Celebrate and Honor the Resilience of Southern Black Motherhood

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Hello Community,

I am thrilled to write to you and announce SPARK’s Mama’s Day e-campaign in partnership with Strong Families! Strong Families is a national initiative raising the social justice issues facing families of color living in the U.S. This is the second year of the campaign that includes beautiful e-cards that celebrate Mamas with images and justice messages that reflect the diversity of our dynamic families.

SPARK Mama's Day Illustration

This Mama’s Day, We Celebrate and Honor the Resilience of Southern Black Motherhood

SPARK’s southern twist to the e-campaign is in full swing featuring interviews, an op-ed, and images honoring Black women living in Georgia. Starting today, you will meet Tracee McDaniel, Marilynn Winn, and Mary Hooks—three spectacular Georgia women shaking it up in our community! These activists, mothers, and daughters have words of encouragement for advocates and policy leaders working toward justice and bodily autonomy for our families in this society.

Finally, as I embark on the role of Executive Director of SPARK, I look forward to building upon the decades of fierce feminist leadership paving the way for reproductive justice in Georgia. I thank you, our community partners, for continuing to be the fuel behind our flame! Your support sustains this ambitious organization’s transformative and nationally recognized reproductive justice advocacy efforts for women and queer youth of color living in Georgia and throughout the South!

Remember to like us on Facebook (sparkrjnow), follow us on twitter (@sparkrjnow), and contribute: https://www.sparkrj.org/donate/.

My best to you,

Malika A. Redmond
Executive Director

Malika Redmond Named New Executive Director of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!

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Malika RedmondOn behalf of the Board of Directors of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, we would like to announce Malika Redmond as its new Executive Director. Redmond, a nationally recognized reproductive justice activist, human rights advocate, researcher, and proud Spelman College alumna has been instrumental in the Reproductive Justice movement for more than a decade.

Redmond previously worked at Political Research Associates (PRA) as the lead gender justice researcher. There she managed a team of researchers writing about Reproductive Justice and Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender issues.  In fact, Malika was one of the youngest national field organizers for the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., which brought nearly 1 million participants to the National Mall and is considered one of the largest marches in U.S. history. As executive director, she will spearhead fundraising efforts, advance SPARK’s policy work and advocacy initiatives across the state of Georgia, build upon our legacy of radical political analysis, and continue to foster the organization’s movement building work in the South.

“I am honored to join SPARK as the new Executive Director. I am excited to build upon SPARK’s proud history of training reproductive justice leaders within our communities to demand justice and policies about our bodies, lives, genders and families that are sustainable and liberatory. Today’s challenges require it,” said Redmond.

“We are so excited to have Malika at the helm of SPARK at this critical time in organization’s history. Black women and girls and queer youth of color in the South are facing critical barriers right now that must be addressed through policy and on the ground political organizing. Malika has the insight, analysis, and organizing ability to make the most impact,” says SPARK board chair Taryn Jordan.

SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW is a young, vibrant, community-centered, statewide reproductive justice organization based in Atlanta, Georgia.  Our mission is to collaborate with individuals, communities, and organizations to grow and sustain a powerful reproductive justice movement in Georgia and the South.

Remembering the Fearless Women of Color Who Paved the Way for Roe v. Wade

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By Bianca Campbell, Organizer, SPARK

In order to honor the achievements of Roe v. Wade, it is necessary to explore the contributions of vivacious, fearless women of color in the South. Civil Rights leaders like Coretta Scott King, Ella Baker, Dorothy Irene Height and Fannie Lou Hamer not only believed but exercised their belief that we are capable of making critical, personal, and just decisions about our bodies, our families, and our communities even under the most hostile social, political, and economic circumstances. It is in their tradition that the reproductive justice movement is rooted, and it is in their legacies that we renounce all attempts to vilify and shame the agency, power, and morality of Black women and all chosen families.

Our work will not be complete until women are able to make choices about their reproductive health that they feel is best for their bodies without shame or judgment; until incarcerated women can birth in dignity and without shackles; until queer and trans* people can feel safe walking down the street regardless of their expression or appearance; until queer families can visit their children in hospitals and be recognized as legal guardians; until young parents feel supported and empowered in raising their children!

To realize this vision of true, unmitigated choice over our families and our bodies, we must fight for proactive legislation that recognizes our humanities and educate not only our legislators, but our neighbors. We must organize for both the immediate threats to our communities as well as long-term, systemic cultural change. As we fight against the attacks on Roe v. Wade, we must advocate beyond abortion and contraceptive access. We must recognize the complexity and intersectionality of all the people who struggle with us. We have the people, the power, and the brilliance to make lasting change for our communities.

And so, on this historic day, we celebrate the visionaries who have come before us and the access that Roe v. Wade has brought to our communities while recognizing that there is much left to do.

US Supreme Court Upholds the Affordable Care Act: SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW Cautiously Celebrates Impact on Poor Women

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On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the historic Affordable Care Act (ACA) was constitutional. This means that starting January 2014 nearly 2 million Georgians and potentially 16 million Southerners will receive comprehensive health coverage through either Medicaid or a state health exchange.

For women, this also means coverage for a wide range of preventive reproductive health services without additional out-of-pocket costs, including Pap tests, STI screening and counseling, prenatal care, and the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV); as well as obstetric and gynecologic care without preauthorization or referral. Insurance companies can no longer charge women higher premiums than men nor can they exclude coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Health insurance plans would also have to support maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs, which are designed to improve prenatal, maternal and newborn health, including pregnancy outcomes, childhood outcomes and reduce disparities among women of color.

While overall, women will receive better coverage and more choices in their health care, the Court dealt a potentially serious blow to the Medicaid expansion portion of the health care law.  Under the ACA, states would have been required to expand Medicaid eligibility to all Americans with a family income up to 133% of the federal poverty level beginning in 2014 or risk losing their current Medicaid funding. Unfortunately, the court ruled that states’ participation in the expansion must be optional and that the government could not penalize those states that decide not to do the expansion.

Currently, most state Medicaid programs, particularly in the south, cover pregnant women and children within state specified thresholds. Expansion would allow individual adults, many of whom are parents, the ability to participate in the Medicaid program. If a state “ops out” of the expansion,, poor women, especially women of color, who cannot afford to buy into the state exchanges or do not qualify for a subsidy, will be in a “healthcare limbo.”

Our mission as a southern-based reproductive justice organization is to not only increase awareness about the health benefits that women gained under the ACA, but to also raise alarms about the potentially harmful impact the Court’s decision about the Medicaid expansion could have on poor women.  As policymakers in Georgia and throughout the South implement the ACA, we must be vigilant to ensure that all women and their families receive affordable, quality health care, regardless of their income.