Press Releases
Billboards Link Past, Present for Black Atheists
For Immediate Release - Contact Zachary Moore, 817-823-7267
zach@dfwcor.org
www.dfwcor.org
January 31, 2012
The Dallas/Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFWCoR), an umbrella organization supporting local grassroots secular organizations, in collaboration with African Americans for Humanism (AAH), is announcing today its participation in a new billboard campaign to highlight black atheists, humanists, and freethinkers from history and in the present-day. Additional AAH billboards will be launching simultaneously in New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Raleigh-Durham.
Alix Jules, Assistant Coordinator of the DFWCoR and Chair of its Diversity Council, also serves on the Speakers Bureau for AAH and is featured on the Dallas billboard alongside Harlem Renaissance poet and freethinker Langston Hughes. "Growing up, it was very difficult for me to try to find God," Jules says. "I would feel broken when I would see people catching the spirit and hearing voices I couldn't hear. The more time I spent praying and studying the Bible, the fewer answers I found. Eventually I realized that I just didn't buy it anymore."
Jules noted that as a former believer, he has dealt with the pain of rejection from family and friends. "I don't have an extended biological family anymore. But the DFWCoR is an inclusive organization, so even though many people don't look like me, they accept me and my doubts. Now I feel like I have family again."
Jules was motivated to become active as a black nonbeliever after attending the inaugural AAH conference in 2010. "I decided that I wasn't going to be a token black person anymore. Since then, I've put myself out there, and despite threats of backlash from the religious community, it's important to show my children that they can find lifelong friends without having to submit to judgmental communities of superstitious belief."
The Dallas billboard campaign will run on South Thornton Freeway, Southbound on Illinois for four weeks beginning February 6th.
The Dallas/Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is a community of nontheistic groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that works to raise the public profile of and cooperation among all such local organizations.
African Americans for Humanism supports skeptics, doubters, humanists, and atheists in the African American community, provides forums for communication and education, and facilitates coordinated action to achieve shared objectives.
Atheist Group Seeks Diversity Among Godless
For Immediate Release - Contact Zachary Moore, 817-823-7267
zach@dfwcor.org
www.dfwcor.org
Alix Jules
diversity@dfwcor.org
diversity.dfwcor.org
June 15, 2011
The Dallas/Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFWCoR), an umbrella organization supporting local grassroots secular organizations, today announced the formation of a Diversity Council to recruit minority nonbelievers and raise awareness of existing diversity in the "New Atheist" movement.
"Since the days of Frederick Douglass, atheists of color have been a vital if often overlooked part of America's secular heritage," said Zachary Moore, Coordinator of the DFWCoR. "But today, though prominent celebrities like Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas openly question the existence of God, atheists of color and those within the LGBT community may not realize that local secular groups are available and seeking to increase their diversity."
Alix Jules, Assistant Coordinator of the DFWCoR, will serve as Chair of the Diversity Council. "Our purpose is to help secular individuals from different backgrounds know that they're not alone," Jules noted. "The mainstream secular movement appears homogenous, but we know that's not the case." The Diversity Council website features profiles from prominent grassroots and nationally-known secular activists, such as author and former Baptist deacon Donald Wright, journalist and comedian Jamila Bey, and blogger Hemant Mehta, of the website FriendlyAtheist.com and author of "I Sold My Soul On eBay."
Atheists of color and within the LGBT community are encouraged to visit the Diversity Council's website at diversity.dfwcor.org for more information.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is a community of nontheistic groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. DFW CoR works to raise the public profile of and cooperation among all such local organizations.
The United Coalition of Reason is a nationwide network of local coalitions. It exists to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason by providing funding and expertise to help them cooperate toward the goal of raising their public profiles.
Godless Ads Go on Ft. Worth Buses December 1
For Immediate Release - Contact Terry McDonald, 817-382-5948
coordinator@metroplexatheists.org
www.dfwcor.org
November 30, 2010
These words are part of a coordinated multi-organizational ad campaign slated to launch tomorrow. It is designed to raise awareness about people who don't believe in a god. Ads proclaiming this message will appear on the sides of "T" buses traveling in Fort Worth and other Tarrant County cities. They will continue until the end of the year.
Placed by the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFW CoR), each ad features the words displayed over an image of an American flag made up of the faces of real atheist and agnostic people. The campaign is designed to help those interested find the fifteen area nontheistic groups that make up the DFW coalition.
"We'd have run these ads on Dallas buses as well," noted DFW CoR Coordinator Terry McDonald, "but when we approached DART, they chose to stop running all religiously-related ads rather than include ours."
The Fort Worth bus ads are also part of a national effort sponsored by DFW CoR's parent organization, the United Coalition of Reason. Thus there have been similar transit ads this year in Detroit, Northwest Arkansas, Philadelphia and Washington DC as well as billboards in Austin, Des Moines, Louisville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Tucson, Sacramento, St. Louis and Seattle. Last year such billboard, bus and subway ads appeared in 20 cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Tulsa, Phoenix and San Diego.
"The point of our national campaign is to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists and agnostics living in the United States," explained Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. "Nontheists like these sometimes don't realize there's a community out there for them because they're inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren't alone."
Reaching out to a secular audience isn't the only goal of the campaign, however. "We want religious people to understand that non-believers are basically the same as everyone else," added Terry McDonald. "We are as 'good', as moral as any other group. If you look you'll find us among your friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members. There are about 50 million non-religious people in the United States. It's time we were recognized and granted our rightful place in society."
For more details on the Fort Worth campaign and for hi-res images of the ad, free for media use, go to www.dfwcor.org.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is a community of nontheistic groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. DFW CoR works to raise the public profile of and cooperation among all such local organizations.
The United Coalition of Reason is a nationwide network of local coalitions. It exists to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason by providing funding and expertise to help them cooperate toward the goal of raising their public profiles.
Godless Groups Organize around DFW Billboards
For Immediate Release - Contact Terry McDonald, 817-382-5948
coordinator@metroplexatheists.org
www.dfwcor.org
March 30, 2009
Dallas-Fort Worth area atheists and agnostics are organizing around two new billboards going up today on Interstate 35. Seven groups of freethinkers and humanists have pooled their efforts to form the new Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason to educate the public about their worldview and what their groups do. The billboards invite people to visit the coalition's website at www.dfwcor.org .
The billboards say, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." These words are superimposed over an image of blue sky and clouds. Motorists traveling northbound on I-35E at Northwest Highway in Dallas and northbound on I-35W just north of downtown Fort Worth will see them.
Under the co-sponsorship of the United Coalition of Reason, a national coordinating body, these billboards are part of an ongoing nationwide campaign to raise the public profile of nontheism and organize godless groups in every major city of the nation.
"The primary goal of billboards like these is to let nontheistic people--such as atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists--know they aren't alone," explained Fred Edwords, communications director for the United Coalition of Reason. "The message is particularly necessary in a part of the country that, for many, has become identified with Protestant evangelicalism. Area nontheists may be unaware that there's a thriving community for them."
The twin billboards on I-35 join others that have gone up at different times around the country, including those in or near New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, Kansas City, Charleston (South Carolina) and, just last week, northern Idaho.
Although not a target of the billboard campaign, local organizers say that religious believers can learn something too. "We want people to know that atheists and agnostics are as essential a part of our community as the faithful are." said Terry McDonald, coordinator of the DFW Coalition of Reason. We have the same compassionate values and, in most other ways, are just like them. We are hard-working, tax-paying moral citizens who care deeply about family, community, state and nation."
Local groups that have launched the coalition are the Dallas Brights, Dallas-Plano Atheist Meetup, Free-Thinkers of Fort Worth Meetup, Freethinkers of the University of Texas-Austin, Humanist Association of Fort Worth, Metroplex Atheists, and North Texas Church of Freethought. Additional groups are being encouraged to join in. The billboards will remain in place through April. An image of the billboard design can be found online at www.dfwcor.org .
The Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is a community of nontheistic groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. DFW CoR works to raise the public profile of and cooperation among all such local organizations.
The United Coalition of Reason is a nationwide network of local coalitions. It exists to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason by providing funding and expertise to help them cooperate toward the goal of raising their public profiles.