Multimedia Educational and Organizing Environment (MEOE)
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	We have recently begun designing a “Multimedia Educational and Organizing Environment”(MEOE) for Africana Criminal Justice. Anchored by assets generated by ACJP research initiatives, the MEOE will provide users with options for engaging multimedia informational resources (in text, video, photography, and other mediums) on crime and justice in the black experience, through pedagogic strategies suitable for a range of user abilities and interests—for example, by identifying source material and other resources related to public policy, political economy, literature and the arts, women and gender, youth issues, community organizing, and more. The MEOE will be a valuable tool for progressive educators, researchers, criminal justice professionals, practitioners, activists, and members of the general public seeking a more in-depth understanding of crime, punishment, and resistance to criminal injustice in the black experience. We are especially interested in establishing connections through the MEOE with the growing network of “Community Technology Centers” (there are approximately 150 such centers in New York City alone), and developing the MEOE as a resource for former prisoners and families of the incarcerated. The site could be used to relate and communicate personal experiences within and outside of the prison and criminal justice system, sharing information with a vast network of scholars, activists, and practitioners, and accessing information relating to strategies of individual and collective action. While realizing its limitations, we feel the MEOE can be a powerful and long-lasting resource for developing civic capacity and leadership to address major challenges at the intersection of race, crime, and justice. As a “digital knowledge community,” the MEOE can connect a wide variety of users, and serve multiple research, educational, and organizing purposes. The MEOE will also have the potential to link local, regional, national, and even international networks of individuals and organizations seeking to address the crisis of racialized criminal injustice.
	Center for Contemporary Black History | Columbia University