By Kathy Amoroso
March 22, 2010

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and Salinas (CA) Mayor Dennis Donohue are the latest mayors to sign Literacy Powerline’s "Right to Literacy Scroll" to focus on the importance of literacy for adults and children as the tool to individual self sufficiency and community economic prosperity. Mayors from around the country have signed the Right to Literacy Scroll that is traveling city to city and state to state. It has travelled thousands of miles and will be taken to Washington (DC) on the final leg of its journey, after The U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Conference in Oklahoma City in June 2010.

The scroll has been signed by thousands of people - mayors and elected officials, the media, adult learners, volunteers, service providers, businesses, faith leaders, educational organizations, foundations, and community residents. It has crisscrossed the country and city leaders have embraced it. It is the result of the Declaration of a Right to Literacy born out of Literacy Powerline’s "Literacy Convention" held in Buffalo last year.

In July 1848, in Seneca Falls (NY), women gathered to lay the foundation for the modern equal rights movement. Inspired by speakers Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, the convention laid out the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, a document, as Douglass said was the "grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women."

At the end of the declaration, Stanton wrote, "We shall use every instrumentality within our power to affect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the state and national legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of conventions, embracing every part of the country."

One hundred sixty years later, our nation faces a different civil rights issue. Tens of millions of American adults and children are being held back, not because they are women, but because they lack the skills needed for success in life. Encouraged by the women’s rights pioneers before them, literacy leaders from across the nation called for a new convention. In Buffalo in June 2009, they declared that the Right to Literacy must be a new national priority. Delegates discussed and voted on resolutions including improving our workforce, strengthening our families, building our communities and transforming the literacy system. Like those in Seneca Falls before us, the delegates issued a declaration and a challenge, that everyone be able to read and write.

Low literacy affects all cities. The message of the Right to Literacy Scroll is 100 percent literacy through 100 percent community engagement. Cities interested in more information about the Declaration or opportunities for technical assistance to improve literacy may contact Kathy Amoroso on the Conference of Mayors staff at kamoroso@usmayors.org.