The Evolution of SASS
Student Abolitionists Stopping Slavery (SASS) was founded on December 6, 2004, at the Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, Connecticut, while students in Wendy Nelson Kauffman’s 9th grade U.S. History class were studying Connecticut’s complicity in 19th Century slavery. When the students criticized Northerners for tacitly supporting Southern slavery at that time, Nelson Kauffman had them read an article about how people today are unwittingly complicit in modern day slavery. Students were horrified to learn that slavery still exists around the world and that their buying habits often sustain it. They decided to fight this modern injustice by creating SASS.
The group’s primary focus is raising awareness and raising funds. SASS was made a hub of Free the Slaves in 2007, and has donated thousands of dollars over the years in support of Free the Slaves’ worldwide efforts to combat slavery and human trafficking.
SASS members first spoke of their work at the 2005 iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) international conference in Senegal, Africa. The following year, members led a workshop for students and teachers at the international Conference on Criminal Trafficking and Slavery held at the University of Illinois. In 2007, SASS was invited to address a subcommittee of the United Nations in New York City. SASS also has lobbied members of Congress on Capitol Hill to re-authorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and to create a national task force on trafficking. Some SASS highlights just this past year include its president being a panelist in Washington, D.C. at the National Youth Summit on Abolition. She discussed her abolitionist work during a live web conference viewed by 4,000 students in the United States and five other countries. She was the only student on the panel, which included Ambassador Luis CdeBaca of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, historian Lois Brown, and Kenneth B. Morris Jr., president of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation.
SASS students attended the 2012 Yale University conference: Abolition, Past and Present, and SASS advisor, Ms. Nelson Kauffman, was a panelist during a breakout session. She also presented again the work of SASS students at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center workshop on How to be an Abolitionist.
The highlight of the year for SASS is the annual Abolitionist Fair at CREC’s Metropolitan Learning Center for Global and International Studies, a public magnet school created to help close the achievement gap in Connecticut. During the fair, students illustrate facts and concepts about past and modern-day slavery through a variety of presentations, student-created videos, and hands-on activities and games. The student-run fair also features activists from other schools and community groups, including the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Connecticut Coalition Against Trafficking, Free the Slaves, and Love 146. Each year, the fair exposes hundreds of students from MLC and other schools in the region to the horrors of modern-day slavery and offers them a chance to get involved.Now beginning its 10th year, Student Abolitionists Stopping Slavery remains committed to spreading the word about the scourge of slavery and adding its voice to the chorus of activists demanding that more be done to free its victims.
The group’s primary focus is raising awareness and raising funds. SASS was made a hub of Free the Slaves in 2007, and has donated thousands of dollars over the years in support of Free the Slaves’ worldwide efforts to combat slavery and human trafficking.
SASS members first spoke of their work at the 2005 iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) international conference in Senegal, Africa. The following year, members led a workshop for students and teachers at the international Conference on Criminal Trafficking and Slavery held at the University of Illinois. In 2007, SASS was invited to address a subcommittee of the United Nations in New York City. SASS also has lobbied members of Congress on Capitol Hill to re-authorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and to create a national task force on trafficking. Some SASS highlights just this past year include its president being a panelist in Washington, D.C. at the National Youth Summit on Abolition. She discussed her abolitionist work during a live web conference viewed by 4,000 students in the United States and five other countries. She was the only student on the panel, which included Ambassador Luis CdeBaca of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, historian Lois Brown, and Kenneth B. Morris Jr., president of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation.
SASS students attended the 2012 Yale University conference: Abolition, Past and Present, and SASS advisor, Ms. Nelson Kauffman, was a panelist during a breakout session. She also presented again the work of SASS students at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center workshop on How to be an Abolitionist.
The highlight of the year for SASS is the annual Abolitionist Fair at CREC’s Metropolitan Learning Center for Global and International Studies, a public magnet school created to help close the achievement gap in Connecticut. During the fair, students illustrate facts and concepts about past and modern-day slavery through a variety of presentations, student-created videos, and hands-on activities and games. The student-run fair also features activists from other schools and community groups, including the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Connecticut Coalition Against Trafficking, Free the Slaves, and Love 146. Each year, the fair exposes hundreds of students from MLC and other schools in the region to the horrors of modern-day slavery and offers them a chance to get involved.Now beginning its 10th year, Student Abolitionists Stopping Slavery remains committed to spreading the word about the scourge of slavery and adding its voice to the chorus of activists demanding that more be done to free its victims.