The Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of groups around the country working to advance Black political self-determination. The organization intends to carry on with its efforts in 2021 and beyond as the struggle continues.
Here are five groups connected to the Movement for Black Lives to watch:
Dignity and Power Now
This Los Angeles-based group works to promote the interests and dignity of incarcerated people and their families in Southern California by defunding the police and abolishing the prison system as we know it.
The group has a number of ongoing initiatives, including arts and wellness, a leadership collective for those coming home from prison, a coalition to end sheriff violence, and more.
Dignity and Power Now is led by established activists like Executive Director Lamia El Sadek and formerly incarcerated people like Senior Advocacy Lead James Nelson, who was in prison for 29 years.
Freedom, Inc.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Freedom, Inc. works with poor communities of color to advance their interests and lobby for change in their treatment. The group is a Black and Southeast Asian coalition that has fought against discrimination and systemic injustice since 2000.
Freedom, Inc. uses a non-hierarchical approach to solving problems by using a “flower” tactic that allows each “petal” a degree of autonomy to determine its path forward. At the center is the nonprofit community that makes decisions based on its interests.
The group's motto and mission statement reads: “Our community is our campaign.”
Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression was founded in 1973 in reaction to the imprisonment of Angela Davis that year and has expanded its reach in recent years.
“We defend the civil liberties of workers, activists and prisoners,” the group declares in its mission statement. “We struggle against white supremacy, the prison-industrial complex and state violence. We demand community control of the police and full representation for Black people and other poor and oppressed people at all levels of government.”
The alliance is continuing its work in the face of the pandemic as people of color are enduring disproportionate consequences of the disease.
Journey for Justice Alliance
Much like the Movement for Black Lives, the Journey of Justice Alliance is a coalition of groups around the country. The umbrella organization brings together Black and Brown-led parent groups fighting against the destruction of the U.S. public school system.
Journey of Justice aims to find community alternatives to attempts by charter school proponents to privatize public schools and works to uplift Black and Brown leadership and voices.
As Blue Tent reported, teacher salaries and performance are still major issues for school systems around the country. Journey for Justice’s push to ensure equity of student treatment will play into that mission going forward.
Rethink
Operating out of New Orleans, Rethink targets youth of color to attract leaders of the future and provide a pathway to success. Rethink’s programming reflects a two-pronged approach—using education to ensure the development of community empowerment and lifelong leadership.
The group works with students aged 10 to 14 in its Roots Crew Clubs, which challenge youth to “think critically about their social and political identities in relation to schooling and education, and become engaged in shifting power in their home and school communities.”
Branch Division, the program for youth aged 15 to 22, targets education equity, food and land sovereignty, and transformative justice as narrowly focused intentional groupings of activist students aimed at collective liberation.
