Building One America

Meet up time and plan updated due to expected rain. We will meet at 6:30 in Millburn.

Pastor Francois maligned by Millburn leader in local press.

There has been a change in the schedule for tomorrow night due to the weather. Instead of gathering at 5:30 in Millburn, we will gather between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. at Mt. Zion AME church in Millburn. For those leaving from Fountain Baptist Church, we will meet to leave from there at 6:00 p.m. by van or carpool.

Also, because of the weather, we have an alternative plan that will minimize exposure to the expected rain while still having an impact on our intended audience and local leadership on the official opening night and press night at the Playhouse.

Millburn leadership has continued to ignore Pastor Francois, the members of Fountain Baptist Church, other area clergy and faith leaders, who have demanded a meeting with Millburn leaders to discuss the issue of segregation following their rejection of Dr. Francois's son. One local Millburn leader wrote—anonymously—in a local news outlet, accusing Pastor Francois of "shocking ignorance," calling him "reprehensible" and a criminal for his "own conscious and unlawful attempt to register his child" and for "exploit[ing] his own child as a political pawn.

the letter, with falsehoods and smears against Pastor Francois, is a smokescreen to deflect from Millburn's well-documented history of exclusion and its continued resistance to any efforts to diversify its schools and community.

Please sign up here to support Rev. Francois and to diversify Millburn and New Jersey.

Join Rev. Willie D. Francois III for A Sunday Night at The Theater

Sunday, October 12, 6:30 PM in Millburn

Sunday, October 12, we will gather at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, not to see the show but to get justice and support for our goal to integrate Millburn’s schools. Go here to see our August 27 protest in Millburn.   Go here to read about our most recent demonstration at the Paper Mill Playhouse.  

The Paper Mill Playhouse is the “gem of our community,” according to Millburn’s Mayor. Therefore, we are going there to get her attention and that of Millburn’s other civic and education leaders, who have completely ignored us since their schools refused to allow pastor Francois’s 5-year-old son to attend kindergarten.

We are excited that Paper Mill Playhouse is performing Bull Durham with an integrated cast, but we are disappointed that Millburn acts like Bull Connor with its policies of exclusion.

We will gather initially at the Mount Zion AME church in Millburn between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. and caravan together to the playhouse. 

If you would like to carpool or ride from Fountain Baptist Church in Summit please arrive at Fountain by 6:00 p.m.

Sign up here to let us know you will join Pastor Francois in this critical action to promote justice and inclusion.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Click here for a prinable flyer above 

Use this QR code to promote with your congregation or organization.   

                                                           

The Face of Segregation in New Jersey - a Call to Action!

Join Pastor Willie D. Francois in reponce to an unjust and ilegal act of denial and exclusion for his and all children of NJ - Wednesday, August 27.  We will meet at Fountain Baptist Church, 116 Glenside Ave, Summit, NJ, 07901. 

On August 6, 2025, the parent of an African American boy visited one of the most affluent and high-performing school districts in the state to have his child registered. The parent was told “no.” 

Go here to join the action.

The student who was denied even an application was the 5-year-old son of the Rev. Dr. Willie D. Francois III, the Senior Pastor of Fountain Baptist Church in Summit, NJ. Rev. Francois works near some of New Jersey’s most affluent towns and the best schools, in which he (and most Black families in New Jersey) cannot afford to live.

His family lives in a district facing the challenges other high-poverty, racially isolated districts across the state face—challenges that are not the fault of the districts and will not be solved until New Jersey's political leaders muster the courage to meaningfully address the illegal segregation of its schools at the state level.

Until then we must demand that the highest-performing, well-resourced, low-poverty, and racially exclusive districts open their doors to children like Willie Francois IV and the many other students who have been illegally condemned by leaders of both parties to high-poverty, low-performing, and racially isolated schools. We will meet next Wednesday, August 27, at 10:00 AM at Fountain Baptist Church to take action in response to this act of denial, disrespect, and exclusion. Sign up here to join Pastor Francois in an action to demand justice, inclusion, and equality of opportunity.

We will meet at Fountain Baptist Church, and then join Pastor Francois as he again attempts to register his son and submits a proposal for them to comply with the New Jersey Constitution and open their schools to students from segregated districts. We will be finished by 12:00 noon.

Fountain Baptist Church is at 116 Glenside Ave, Summit, NJ, 07901.

More details will be provided when you arrive.

You can also sign up using this QR code

LEADERSHIP TRAINING BY BUILDING ONE AMERICA and the SUMMIT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

June 27 through June 30, 2024, Stockton University, Galloway, New Jersey. 

Because space is limited, interested individuals must apply to participate in this program.  The application is available online and can be accessed HERE.

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FROM DIVERSITY TO SHARED POWER

Demographic diversity has been increasing throughout American society.  While membership and even leadership in many organizations have reflected this change, power and decision-making often fail to keep up with the racial, ethnic, generational and gender make up of our communities and institutions, including labor unions, local government, and religious congregations. This failure has left us weaker and more easily undermined by those who do not share our values of inclusion and opportunity.

One reason for this persistent power gap is that we too often confuse the visual trappings of diversity with genuine equality and political and economic integration. When members of underrepresented groups secure leadership positions they frequently begin at a significant disadvantage. Generational layers of power, privilege, experience and networks of formal and informal relationships are at play in any public arena where power is wielded and important decisions get made. These dynamics are taken for granted or denied by the powerful, while often unseen or not easily understood by the powerless. We frequently find ourselves in organizations, committees, boards and leadership structures that are diverse in name and appearance, but in reality are decidedly lopsided when it comes to the exercise of power.

As Frederick Douglass famously reminded us, power never did and never will be given away by those who have it to those who don’t.

Building One America’s training does not claim to make people more powerful nor does it create diversity, but it does better equip emerging leaders from diverse and working-class backgrounds to better understand and navigate the dynamics of power and politics and to have the tools to compete effectively and further themselves and their values in the public arena. Moreover, it will help individual leaders to recognize more clearly their own potential and motivations to build a powerful and meaningful public life.

Because space is limited, interested individuals must apply to participate in this program.  The application is available online and can be accessed HERE. 

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Who: This training is for leaders from anywhere who want to become more effective in making a difference – including organizers, leaders and volunteers from the faith community, labor unions, electoral politics, public office holders and grassroots rank-and-file leaders. 

What: The training teaches ordinary people to unleash their capacity to impact the social, political, environmental, and economic decisions affecting their lives. The training has been designed and will be conducted by experienced organizers affiliated with Building One America and the Summit for Civil Rights. The training is unique in combining elements of leadership training developed over the past fifty years by national community organizing networks, with a contemporary analysis and strategy for developing multiracial institutional and social power to build more inclusive and equitable communities.

Topics covered include:

• An orientation and reflection on power
• Understanding self-interest as a way to build membership, engage allies and adversaries, and become a more focused and self-motivated leader
• The role, value, and techniques of one-on-one organizing
• Conducting and understanding a power analysis
• Distinguishing the “public” from the “private” in order to build an effective public life
• The key principles and elements of strategy and tactics and issues and action
• Identifying and developing leaders
• The importance of organized money
• Principles and techniques for effective meetings
• Personal reflection, strategic planning and developing a personal path to power

The training is not just an intellectual exercise. It challenges and helps experienced leaders and emerging leaders to identify, reflect on, and overcome internalized attitudes and beliefs that stand in the way of becoming more powerful and impactful. The goal is to produce more powerful leaders and to facilitate the expansion of more powerful and more unified multiracial coalitions and structures.

When:  The training will take place over four days starting Thursday, June 27 through Sunday June 30, 2024.

Where: Stocton Universty, Galloway Township Campus, Galloway, NJ

Cost: Tuition plus room and board is $625 per participant for affliaites and sponsoring organizations. 

Because space is limited, interested individuals must apply to participate in this program.  The application is available online and can beaccessed HERE.