Chapter 4: A Ground Breaking Couple: Jean and Edgar Cahn
Antioch School Of Law/UDC
“RFK did not hesitate to remind us that poverty and race are intertwined, characterizing indifference and apathy to racism as "violence that afflicts the poor.” -Dr. Edgar Cahn, 2008
Drs. Jean and Edgar Cahn came to Washington, DC in 1963, the year in which Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy presented the award to Marvin Caplan on behalf of Neighbors, Inc, for keeping Shepherd Park an integrated neighborhood. Edgar Cahn was here to work for the Department of Justice, as a speech writer for Attorney General Kennedy. His wife Jean Cahn, whom he had married in 1957, came with him, also working on the War on Poverty. During those first two years, 1963 and 1964, the Cahn's helped to form Temple Micah, splitting with the Temple several years later. Edgar Cahn left government in 1969 to create the Citizen's Advocate Center, whose objective was the eradication of hunger in the United States. He also became active in working with the American Indian Movement (AIM) for Native American tribal self-determination and control of resources. His wife Dr. Jean Cahn, meanwhile, had been hired by the George Washington University's (GWU) Urban Law Institute to train law school graduates for community practice.
When GWU shut down the Urban Law Institute, a hole was left in community legal services which the Cahn's endeavored to fill. They created the Antioch School of Law in 1972, each serving as “Co-Dean” of the law school. This law school took a unique approach to training lawyers. First year law students were assigned to live with the clients for the first six weeks of the new school year while learning to do legal research, getting oriented to the city, and handling administrative cases not requiring a lawyer. This allowed greater contact with the local community, while building an ethos of public service.
By 1979, financial problems and difficulty meeting the payroll for the Antioch Law School caused Antioch College to cut the law school, not without a long fight from Dr. Edgar Cahn. The Antioch College Law School became part of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). The UDC Law School, now called the David A. Clarke School of Law, is known as the most publicly spirited law school in the city, with a higher percentage than any other of graduates who go on to practice public service law. But that fight had a price. On February 29th, 1980, Edgar had a heart attack. That day, not only did the calendar observe a leap year, but the stage was set for the next leap forward in community-based economics and cooperation.
Time Banks USA
“What is the function of a currency? Rewarding caring and sharing...
A medium of exchange reinforcing what we say we value.” -Dr. Edgar Cahn on Time Dollars
Lying in his hospital bed in 1980, Edgar Cahn realized something. Each person needs something, and each person has something to contribute. Money is an impersonal and scarce medium of exchange which devalues those who cannot give in terms that the market recognizes as valuable. But if we could match the time needed with the time available to contribute, then we could organize our society along more caring and mutually respectful lines. Thus, from a heart attack, Time Banking, a new system of community economic self-help now used all over the world, was born. Here is an explanation of how Time Banks work in the United Kingdom:
“ What is timebanking?
Timebanking is a means of exchange used to organise people and organisations around a purpose, where time is the principal currency. For every hour participants ‘deposit’ in a timebank, perhaps by giving practical help and support to others, they are able to ‘withdraw’ equivalent support in time when they themselves are in need. In each case the participant decides what they can offer. Everyone’s time is equal, so one hour of my time is equal to one hour of your time, irrespective of whatever we choose to exchange. Because timebanks are just systems of exchange, they can be used in an almost endless variety of settings.
Traditionally these settings have been divided into three categories:
1) Person-person
These might be ‘standalone’ timebanks, perhaps in a local community, where residents might organise social action using the principles of an hour for an hour. This might typically see a timebank member earning a time credit by doing the shopping for an elderly member of the timebank, and then spending that time credit on getting somebody else to provide baby-sitting support at a time when they are busy.
2) Person-agency
This model might see organisations using timebanking as a tool for achieving their own outcomes and goals. In this instance, the timebank might be interwoven into the fabric of the organisation, so that their own activities can be organised through a system of time exchange. For example, a hospital might wish to provide a home-care service for patients who have left the acute care setting but are still in need of support –perhaps somebody with a broken leg for example. The hospital would then organise the informal support needed, such as help with cooking meals, doing shopping or running basic errands, using a timebank to incentivise the giving of help rather than paying professionals in the traditional manner.
3) Agency-agency
Timebanks can also work between organisations, as a system for trading assets and resources. Organisations, such as local businesses or public sector agencies, might place access to some of their resources into the timebank. This might be the use of a minibus or sports hall, or particular skills that they have such as graphic design or legal advice. Organisations in the timebank can then share, trade and exchange resources based on the hour for an hour principle.
A false distinction?
In reality however, timebanks are most sustainble when these artificial boundaries are withdrawn, and the three models are brought together. In that way, people, organisations and public services can be brought together in time banking marketplaces where skills, support and physical assets can be exchanged in an equitable manner.”
Thus Dr. Edgar Cahn, from being a living example of Black-Jewish cooperation, to fighting injustice for all people, created a new economic institution which values the time and contributions of all. He still insists that he never aligned himself with any community, but worked with any community that cared about finding synergy to move together toward a common goal, a world with “no more throw away people.”
Racial Justice Initiative (RJI)
“...ending violence against our own values as a nation.” -Dr. Edgar Cahn
The Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) came about in 2008 as a result of the work with Time Banks USA. Funding for Time Banks had led to the formation of many middle class Time Banks in small towns and enclaves of larger towns, which were Time Banks mostly of the individual or person to person category.
This highlighted the problems the author noted as a member of the Bath Time Bank, in Bath, England. People of different classes, particularly the poor vs the various middle classes, seem to have great difficulty in working together. Time Banks USA saw problems of racial disparity highlighted by the problem of social services agency clients and also of “Homecomers” (men newly released on parole from serving periods of incarceration), who were perceived as having little to offer, even to a Time Bank. Class and racial differences heightened difficulties in getting Time Bank members to trust and exchange services with one another. This led Dr. Cahn to seek out and build alliances with people who were willing to cooperate and pool resources to form the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI). The RJI advocates on behalf of multiracial youth by propagating a new legal theory which is based on future outcomes. Until funding was cut by the District of Columbia, the RJI had successfully pioneered alternative methods of helping at risk youth, such as the DC Youth Court, a peer to peer judgment tribunal:
“In Washington, D.C., The Time Dollar Youth Court (TDYC) provides alternative youth peer sentencing to first-time juvenile offenders in the District of Columbia, providing a constructive means of instilling respect and responsibility for self and others. The recidivism rate for Youth Court participants is 9% for those who successfully completed the Youth Court Diversion Program (as opposed to 30% for those in the D.C. area who were not referred to Youth Court). ”
In forming the RJI, Dr. Cahn again inspired cooperation, building effective and caring structures that effect real change for the youth of our society. Next we look at ongoing community-based initiatives.