Neo-Underground Railroad Conductors

Why have so many conductors joined the movement? What occurred in their lives to bring them to NURC? What keeps them driven to stay committed to this movement? Below are several letters from conductors, written to inspire organizations, clubs, colleges, universities, etc., to join the NURC movement.

A Letter from Conductor Raphael

Hello Conductor:

Why do you care so much about “black issues” Raphael? Did you forget that you are white? My direct ancestors never owned slaves, don’t tell me I’m responsible. The movement won’t pay your bills, focus on yourself, and get a job. Don’t pay attention to Raphael; he’s a radical. You just hate white people don’t you? Sadly, none of these comments, accusations, and questions are fabrications; I hear them all too frequently. Every one of those statements assumes I have no connection with the outcome of the movement to which I contribute. People do not understand who I am or why I have chosen this path. More importantly, people do not understand themselves or their roles in society. Why should I care about the collective victims of oppression when I am not a direct victim myself? Must I must be black to confront “black issues.” Must I be poor to help uplift the poor? Am I required to practice Islam to fight for the human rights of Muslims? No. These are universal, human issues. Today, I believe that the problem of the 21st century is the problem of classism. It crosses all cultural and racial barriers and is the universal issue of our time.

Our generation is not well; but today, we will continue the fight of our ancestors. We are the Neo-Underground Railroad Conductors (N.U.R.C.). We are a group of people committed to the freedom, education, enlightenment, and empowerment of all people. Welcome to the movement.

Our History

The Underground Railroad involved the movement of people escaping the bondage of slavery. In the 1960s, college student activists were the spark for the Civil Rights Movement. Similarly, the Neo-Underground Railroad is an action-oriented movement dedicated to ending the mental bondage of our present generation.

Conductors created a call for action in the fall of 2004 at James Madison University by bringing active college students together to form the N.U.R.C. movement. The focus of the movement began with confronting media stereotypes and negative imagery. We gathered support from dozens of colleges and universities along the U.S. East Coast and Mid-West to generate nearly 10,000 letters in our “Pushing the Envelope” Campaign. We sent the letters to large media conglomerates and advertisers protesting the negative stereotypes and imagery shown in music videos and destructive lyrics. We wrote the letters to build awareness of their involvement in these injustices.

Recently, we helped develop the student-led, Katrina on the Ground initiative for New Orleans, Louisiana. We brought between 1000 and 1200 college students to New Orleans to help rebuild the city’s hardest hit areas. At our local Boys & Girls Club, we have provided programs that confront major issues affecting youth. In conjunction with our community service-based efforts, we will launch the RE-Generation Tour soon. For more information, please visit our website at www.nurc.org.

Our community needs you, our people need you, but most importantly, our children need you.

Sincerely,

Raphael, Neo-Underground Railroad Conductor

A Letter from Conductor Kayin

Hello Conductor:

To anyone who has ever felt the need for positive change, to anyone who has ever been inspired to be part of this positive change, I write to you about the Neo-Underground Railroad Conductors. I want to tell you about this wonderful movement and what it means to me and about what it could mean for all of us, not confined to this campus or in this community, but reaching across our entire country. I will highlight the groundbreaking work that NURC is doing, weekly, at the local Boys and Girls Club: How we are engaging the youth—a youth we lived not too long ago—to question the messages being given to them by the media and its peers. We ask them to look beyond what the music videos or teachers tell them and into their hearts for the answer. What are were we doing? What is this NURC thing all about? We were attempting to free the kids from their mental boxes so that they can step out of those chains and be themselves, so that their minds can be free to reach higher, while finding and achieving their own goals, on their own terms. This is what we are about,

We all have mental boxes. At NURC meetings and conferences we engage in passionate discussion in hopes of breaking free of our own forms of mental slavery, e.g., racism, prejudice, low self-esteem, etc., while encouraging others to do the same. In our brief existence, we voiced our concerns to national and local leaders and corporations through “Pushing the Envelope”: A national letter writing campaign. When the media seemingly forget about the Hurricane Katrina victims, we organized over 1000 students from all over the country to go down to New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama to help the areas and their inhabitants recover.

In short, NURC is a voice of revolutionary change—the same voice that exists inside of you. That voice that calls you to be more—to go beyond your own expectations and perceived limitations. The same voice that has driven every positive revolutionary movement is back. That voice has called me and is calling you. Our youth is calling. Our neighborhoods and communities are crying out. The NURC movement is calling you. How will you respond?

Sincerely,

Kayin Jeffers, Neo-Underground Railroad Conductor

A Letter from Conductor Nick

Hello Conductor:

I would like to express how fortunate I feel to have encountered the Neo-Underground Railroad.

When I first heard about NURC, I was a student at Blue Ridge Community College, but I was attending open mic poetry nights at James Madison University’s Taylor Down Under. It was there that I heard a fellow Conductor named Kayin Jeffers informing people about a Spring Break relief-work trip to post-Katrina New Orleans. To be honest, I didn’t care about logistics; I just wanted to go! So, I joined the Neo-Underground Railroad and began work; consequently, my eyes were forced wide open.

I am the descendant of Europeans, and much of my family has been on this continent since the 1700s. I have been enclosed within the ignorance of half-truths and denial upon which this American culture manufactured an identity in my mind; something I did not fully begin to recognize until having seen the devastation of the Crescent City. While and after being in New Orleans with hundreds of fellow students, most of whom were African-American, I began to see realities of the United States: Deep inequalities exist in the public education system, misinformation abounds in the media, the government selectively funds disaster relief areas, etc. Because of the awareness presented to me by our experience in New Orleans, last Spring Break, I have begun to make the connection between institutional racism and classism that enforced the dehumanization and subjugation of millions in our history, and the present institutions in America. Also, through my experiences with NURC, that alongside the oppressive forces in American history, there has always existed a deep, thriving, and 110 percent culture of response, resistance, transformation and humanization, developing change toward the true freedom I grew up learning about.

NURC is a movement which offers the community, the spirit, the energy, the motivation, the love, and the real option of action to continue the movement for freedom endeavored by Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Dorothy Day, Henry David Thoreau, et. al.; however, it also continues the heritage of freedom endeavored by thousands of heroic humans who love life and love humanity. It continues from those like Jesus Christ and thousands of un-namable martyrs and survivors throughout history, to those heroes who surround you at your own college: the Conductors on your own campus. We, the Neo-Underground Conductors, are constantly among those who conduct the truth and broadcast it from our hearts and minds. We seek to help others and ourselves better realize the truth. So, if this is the truth for which you search, NURC will help you in your search. If you hear the call of NURC, be free and answer it.

Sincerely and with peace,

Nicholas William Carl, Neo-Underground Railroad Conductor

A Letter from Conductor Abyi

Coming soon…