Willie Head, a vegetable farmer and leader of the Peoples Tribunal of Valdosta, an organization of rural workers and farmers, is spreading the word and circulating the petition by the Miami-based Committee to Defend Free Speech and the Bill of Rights. Head, along with Gladys Williams, also a leader of the Tribunal, discussed Italie's fight at a recent meeting of the group. Head sees the fight by Italie to protest his firing as joined with the fight by Valdosta State University instructor Leigh Touchton to regain her job.

"These are issues of free speech--having the right to say what's on your mind in the fight for justices--and we need to defend that right as well as define it so that everyone will be clear as to what the definition of free speech and constitutional rights really are." Leigh Touchton, the fired biology instructor who is also president of the Valdosta NAACP, has endorsed Italie's fight. Other endorsers include David Klier and Ben Speight, and activists in the Valdosta State University Living Wage Campaign.
 
 
Related articles:
Garment worker begins tour in free speech fight
Help broaden free speech fight
Georgia protest opposes firing of rights fighter
 
 
 
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