Free-Dem Foundations is a non-profit community-based youth organization in New Orleans led by Jerome Morgan, Robert Jones and Daniel Rideau. The three men served a collective total of nearly fifty years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola before courts ruled that they had been unjustly incarcerated and sentenced. While in prison, at a time when it appeared they had no real chance to be free, they made a pact to one day reunite in New Orleans to set up a cooperative business and mentoring program that would serve young people in danger of being swept into jails and prisons. They enrolled in prison education programs, studied law, and learned trades. With the help of allies outside prison walls they won their freedom. Today Morgan, Jones, and Rideau run the Free-Dem Foundations which fulfills the vision they created while incarcerated. Their presentation will cover their own personal experiences with incarceration that they have delineated in their co-authored book Unbreakable Resolve as well as a report on the curriculum, mentoring, business start-up, and apprenticeship programs they are implementing in the work of the Free-Dem Foundations.

The event is being co-sponsored by the USC Dornsife Prison Education Project (PEP). PEP creates the opportunity for USC and incarcerated students to learn from each other in a rigorous and collaborative learning environment across a variety of academic disciplines. Through PEP, USC students and faculty design, teach and participate in classes with people incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation system. Above all, PEP seeks to reinforce the idea of education as a fundamental human right and to facilitate connections that transcend walls both literal and figurative. More information can be found at https://www.uscpep.org/.

The event will be moderated by Professor Taj Frazier.

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