{"id":16291,"date":"2023-02-22T21:32:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T21:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=16291"},"modified":"2023-02-28T14:50:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T14:50:57","slug":"alumnus-organization-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2023\/02\/22\/alumnus-organization-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus’ Organization Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Alexandra Pecharich<\/p>\n

Originally published on February 22, 2023 at news.fiu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An FIU alumnus-led organization that successfully worked to restore voting rights to ex-felons in Florida has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nobel Peace Prize is the highest recognition that any individual organization could receive in the world,\u201d said Desmond Meade<\/span> JD \u201914, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. \u201cAnd we want to take advantage of this opportunity to really highlight the power of second chances \u2014 that even though people like me have made mistakes in the past, there\u2019s still an opportunity for us to be contributing members of society.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once incarcerated himself, Meade learned firsthand that those in the state who had paid their debt to society could not participate in the simple but powerful act of voting. Attending FIU\u2019s law school gave him the confidence and skills to spearhead a campaign that in 2018 resulted in Florida voters saying \u201cyes\u201d to allowing the most basic form of civic engagement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That success has been called \u201cthe largest expansion of voting rights in a half-century” and it brought wide acclaim to the man at the center of the mission.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Time magazine named Meade am<\/span>ong the 2019\u00a0<\/span>\u201c100 Most Influential People,\u201d which put him in the company of the world\u2019s top thought leaders, artists and pioneers as well as landed him on the cover of the publication.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The MacArthur Foundation in 2021 awarded Meade a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, which provides a $625,000 stipend to talented individuals who show extraordinary originality, exceptional creativity and the potential to lead important future advances.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meade also found himself inducted into the Miami Dade College Hall of Fame and named <\/span>Central Floridian of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel<\/span> and Floridian of the Year by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at UF. In 2022, he earned FIU\u2019s highest honor as a Torch Award recipient in the category <\/span>of distinguished alumnus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His organization subsequently raised $30 million to help 40,000 indviduals pay off the fines and fees deemed required by the state legislature to regain voter eligibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition <\/span>was nominated for the Nobel\u00a0by The American Friends Service Committee and Quaker Peace and Social Witness, the groups that successfully nominated the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the prize in 1964.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are nominating FRRC for their work in building democracy, supporting the human right to representation by government, and working towards a better organized and peaceful world,\u201d the American Friends Service Committee said in a statement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Alexandra Pecharich Originally published on February 22, 2023 at news.fiu.edu. An FIU alumnus-led organization that successfully worked to restore voting rights to ex-felons in Florida has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.\u00a0 \u201cThe Nobel Peace Prize is the highest recognition that any individual organization could receive in the world,\u201d said Desmond Meade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[505,12,510,511],"class_list":["post-16291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-fiu","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-florida-rights-restoration-coalition","tag-nobel-peace-prize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16293,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291\/revisions\/16293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}