EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — For years, Dorsey Nunn informally compiled the grievances of other former prisoners denied housing, frozen out of job interviews or abruptly fired years after they had done their time.
But when his wife, also formerly incarcerated, was rejected no-questions-asked as a volunteer in one of this crime-pocked city's neediest elementary schools, he decided he'd had enough. How, Nunn asked, could he and millions of other felons contribute to society if society no longer wanted them?
From his frustration came All of Us or None, an organization of the formerly incarcerated now pressing for change in the Bay Area, Southern California and beyond.
"You shouldn't be able to stand on our neck forever," said Nunn, 54, a stocky man with manic energy and a belly laugh equal parts bitter and naive. "People are programmed to see us as the boogeyman, and they're throwing away a lot of good people."
Imprisoned for a 1971 robbery that ended with his accomplice killing a man, Nunn clawed his way to respectability after his release.
Today, the group he co-founded adds a voice that has been oddly absent in a critical national debate, as policymakers and legislators on both sides of the aisle ponder the challenges of former inmates' reentry into society.
All of Us or None is helping eligible former offenders in the Bay Area clear their criminal records -- giving them a better shot at stable employment.
There's also the campaign to prod cities and counties to remove a question about convictions from initial job application forms. (The group just won its biggest victory when San Francisco became the first city in California to agree.) And there is the push for voting rights for county jail inmates from San Francisco to San Bernardino.
Meanwhile, members have set out to help their own, donating bikes to kids of the incarcerated and welcoming new parolees into their homes. (They also found private lodging for Hurricane Katrina evacuees with criminal records that prevented them from securing long-term public help.)
"We demand to move forward," said David Lewis, who co-founded an East Palo Alto drug and alcohol recovery center with Nunn that is helping All of Us or None in its effort. "No one needs to speak for us anymore. We can speak for ourselves."
