Ralph was born in Western Pennsylvania, the son of a union organizer when Pittsburgh and surrounding area was the steel capital of the world.  He remained true to the principles of unionism as founding member of the Teacher’s Freedom Party Caucus of the UFT.  He continued supporting true union principles until the UFT joined management by supporting the racist Central Board  of Education in NYC against the community. 

After leaving jail, he continued the struggle for justice as a Private Investigator who confronted injustice directly.  Ralph supported Lynne Stewart in her lifelong struggle against the double standard so often practiced in the U.S. injustice system past and present.

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Betty Davis like Ralph is a founding member of the New Abolitionist Movement. She has been a warrior in the struggle for community control of education in NYC every since she heard Ralph  speak at a pro union rally supporting the social workers strike against the City of NY in 1967.  After his speech, she questioned him further about his radical, revolutionary  views and that was it.  She joined the struggle to free our community from the oppression in the NYC education system.

Later that year she met Lynne Stewart  and Ralph at a Teacher's Freedom Party social and her account of the history of the struggle for freedom and democracy in  education solidified Betty's resolve to join the struggle.  Lynne was a librarian then who later became known as the People’s lawyer.  I was a social worker soon to become an educator.  Together the three of us founded The New Abolitionist Movement because as everyone knows, "Cats don't educate mice, they eat them."

Betty Davis

New Abolitionist Movement