Pro Bono Collaborative Racial Justice Challenge: Housing

The PBC Racial Justice Challenge

Join The Challenge!

Roger Williams University School of Law’s Pro Bono Collaborative provides pro bono legal service using a three-way partnership model involving law firms and individual attorneys, law students, and community organizations.

This year, in addition to continuing our pro bono work in the community, we are launching an education and awareness campaign around racial justice issues with a focus on housing.

What is the Challenge?

(1) From February 1, 2023 until May 31, 2023, select one challenge from each of the categories below: read something, watch something, and do something. It's that easy! 

(2) Let us know you're up for the challenge: Join The Challenge

Challenge participants will be recognized on RWU Law’s website and through our social media channels. Law firms and community organizations will be provided with a “challenge logo” to put on their organization’s website.

Read:

Articles:

• Neighborhoods Don’t Have To Be Rich To Be Vibrant, an article about: Thanks for Everything (Now Get Out), Can We Restore Neighborhoods without Destroying Them?
• The City of Providence’s reparations committee report: A Matter of Truth, The Struggle for African Heritage & Indigenous People Equal Rights in Providence, Rhode Island (1620-2020).  

Books and Reports:

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (2017). 
• Evicted by Matthew Desmond (2017). 
• 2022 Housing Fact Book (Housing Works RI).

Watch:

• Segregated By Design. This short film examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy. Directed by Mark Lopez.
• Providence Lost A short nonfiction film that follows a family undergoing an eviction in Rhode Island and their subsequent search for a new home. Directed by Oscar Dupuy d’Angeac.
•  "Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?": A Cape Verdean American Story (2006 55" PBS version).
• 13th a full length Netflix documentary (2016).
• Close Up: Where We Don't Live, Rhode Island Historical Society, Struggle for Fair Housing (1965). Edited footage from the WPRO (WPRI) documentary series "Close Up." This episode, entitled "Where We Don't Live" gave voice to Black Rhode Island residents who faced housing discrimination. 
   

Listen:

• Stuff You Should Know, How Housing Discrimination Works.
• Less to Lean On: Housing Insecurity in Rhode Island and the Nation, Podcast Series.
• Seeing White; Podcast Series, Scene on Radio.

Do:

•  PBC Racial Justice Challenge: Housing Law kick-off zoom event "What Does Housing Have To Do With Race?" (Recording from event on February 15. 2023). A great introductory event for anyone interested in learning about housing discrimination.  
• Attend RWU’s “Hidden Truths: Stories of Race and Place,” series presentation “Why Zip Code Matters” on March 7, 2023 at 7 pm. Recording here.
• Take the RWU "Roger Pledge," a commitment inspired by the Birmingham Pledge to uphold our individual responsibilities and actions to treating all people with dignity and respect and to eliminating racial prejudice.
• Join the Affordable Housing Walk in May.  Date TBA (most likely in April)
• Visit the Eviction Help Desk. The help desk operates Monday through Friday between 9 am and noon, outside of Courtroom 3E of the Garrahy Judicial Complex; and/or volunteer one day at the Eviction Help Desk. The help desk operates Monday through Friday between 9 am and noon, outside of Courtroom 3E of the Garrahy Judicial Complex. Email Eliza Vorenberg to schedule a visit: evorenberg@rwu.edu.

Challenge Participants