Fighting for the Little Guy ... An UpTake Leadership Profile: Sarah Walker
938 views · Published 25 April 2013 · 7:23 · Indexed 23 September 2026
Channel: The Uptake by Bridgemakers · 2013 · Entertainment
The Second Chance Coalition, co-founded by Sarah Walker, is blazing a trail for Minnesotans with criminal records who are reentering society and struggling to find jobs, housing and the right to vote. In other words, fighting for a second chance at becoming contributing members of the community. With the help of Walker and the Second Chance Coalition, many are getting a new start. At the coalition's annual Day on the Hill, a lobbying-effort-cum-rally at the Minnesota State Capitol, you're bound to hear ex-felons testifying about the power of regaining their right to vote and how that makes them feel part of the Minnesota community. Four years ago, thanks to a spirited lobbying effort that included ex-offenders making their case to lawmakers, the coalition successfully pushed the state legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty to ban public employers from asking prospective employees about criminal convictions and arrest records on job applications. "Having a Day on the Hill and hosting community forums serves a purpose to move the conversation," says Walker. "But it also provides individuals an opportunity to share their own experience." Walker has been an advocate for ex-offenders ever since she wrote a paper as a student at Carleton College, which argued that modern-day incarceration and parole is akin to a form of slavery. "There is a huge racial dynamic in who's incarcerated," she says. "Minnesota has the second highest racial disparity in the criminal justice system. One in five African-American men are denied the right to vote in Minnesota based on a felony conviction." "The criminal justice system has come to represent the nexus of all our institutional failures. It's where, if you have not received adequate education, adequate mental health services, you face racial discrimination. All of those cumulative disparities come together in the criminal justice system." Walker seemed destined to embrace activism to combat disparities within society. She was born in Zambia to an African father and white mother. When she was three, they moved to Chicago and settled in a deeply segregated neighborhood. There she saw firsthand the pain of racial disparities. That experience was reinforced when, in 2005, she moved her cancer-stricken mother to a hospital in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina arrived. Walker's mother died as residents scrambled to leave the city, and New Orleans became the nation's modern-day poster child for the painful racial inequalities that remain in the U.S. The experience motivated Walker to want to bring radical change to the picture. "The blatant failure at response and the racial dynamics associated with it" made her feel she "had to do something tangible" when she came to the University of Minnesota to complete her graduate work. She not only battles, she paddles: One technique she has used to help break down barriers and promote understanding between urban youths and police is to help arrange canoe trips including members of both groups. This year, Walker is lobbying lawmakers to "Ban the Box" for private employers as well. The "box" currently appears on job applications and asks job seekers to reveal whether they have a criminal record. On April 20, the Minnesota Senate passed "Ban the Box" for private employers by a bipartisan vote of 44-16. The measure now moves to the House. The Coalition is also pushing to seal juvenile records and, ultimately, to restore voting rights for ex-felons once they've done their time.
