Successful Campaigns

We won! Dr. Mutulu Shakur was released from prison December 16th.

On January 13th, the Illinois legislature passed a landmark omnibus bill on justice reform. This momentous policy package, which was championed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus (ILBC), would take crucial steps in advancing racial equity in Illinois by enacting sweeping reforms to anti-Black systems of police brutality and mass incarceration. The legislation includes provisions to standardize police use of force, eliminate key mechanisms of officer impunity, abolish prison gerrymandering, and end systems of wealth based pretrial incarceration. We are now mobilizing community members to demand that Governor Pritzker sign the ILBC’s bill on justice reform (HB 3653) in its entirety, without delay. Timely implementation of this omnibus package is vital to the safety, justice, and liberation of the nearly two million Black residents throughout the state. In September of 2020, when the ILBC released its preliminary racial justice policy agenda, Governor Pritzker pledged to support Black leadership in the Illinois General Assembly. Since that time, the ILBC has received an outpouring of public input, held a series of subject matter hearings, heard hours of expert testimony, and rigorously deliberated on a sweeping array of policy proposals to address racialized systems of police abuse and anti-Black sentencing practices. The ambition and strength of this historic racial justice legislation attests to the unequivocal imperative that public policy be led by the constituents and elected officials most impacted by the issues at hand. We now call upon Governor Pritzker to honor his commitment to stand with the ILBC and the millions of constituents its members represent, by signing HB 3653 in its entirety. We also urge the Governor to leverage the platform of his office to counter the dangerous narratives unleashed by White Supremacist groups that seek to undermine the ILBC’s racial equity legislation through divisive dog whistling and fear mongering tactics. As the nation looks on, it is incumbent upon the Pritzker administration to renounce toxic misinformation that equates racial justice with rampant crime and a Trumpian vision of “American carnage.” Join us as we call upon Governor Pritzker to help set a new tone for the nation by promoting an inclusive message of universal safety, justice, and liberation in Illinois, and enacting HB 3653 in its entirety.

Dekalb Co has initiated hiring process for athletic trainers

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Congratulations! With your support on our OrganizeFor platform, we were able to effectively organize a campaign to demand an Early Voting polling site on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University! It is because of the work of Color Of Change members like you, that the Guilford County Board of Elections has voted in favor of establishing a primary early voting site on campus. Cole Riley, a Color Of Change member, launched this campaign after he saw the confusion of his peers who didn’t know when or where they would vote since the campus is split between two precincts and the primary falls during A&T’s Spring Break. Cole is a sophomore, political science major at A&T and took action on behalf of his community to ensure that Chair, Jim Kimel and the Board of Elections lived up to their stated values of “maximizing voter registration and voter turnout efforts”. Voting barriers across North Carolina are a reminder of the suppression tactics that Black people face each election cycle. Your action forced the Guilford County Board of Elections to vote for an early voting polling site on campus and students will be able to make their voices heard! Our OrganizeFor platform was created to empower people like you to create the change you want to see in your community. You can start your own campaign at OrganizeFor.org. Thank you to all of our leaders, members, and supporters creating change and empowering our communities. Congratulations to Cole Riley and the students at A&T!

Dear Friends, I wanted to share some good news in the midst of some truly challenging times. Thanks to you and more than 3000 others who joined our campaign last Summer, the Burning Man organization has started to take tangible steps to acknowledge and address the reality of its problem of whiteness and lack of diversity, with Black people only making up 1% of its participants. Last week ahead of the virtual Burning Man experience, which is now underway, the organization published a commitment to address it’s racial diversity, including anti-racism training for year-round staff and a commitment to increase BIPOC event access. While we’re loudly applauding their first step, we know that change requires vigilance and love--sometimes sweet and sometimes tough. And we’re here for it. We want Burning Man to be what we believe it can be. This is an important step for Burning Man and our community, and given Burning Man’s prominence, this action will have reverberations in the arts culture at large. We didn’t do this alone and aside from the petition effort, several Burners played key roles in bringing this to be. Part of what we did was provide a framework for concrete action, and we created the space for others to join this radical resistance. From staff members to theme camp leaders to long time white Burners, many heard our demands for equity and were inspired to act. For my camp, Que Viva Camp, a camp of BIPOC social justice activists, this is a welcome moment. We were on the ground last year at Burning Man organizing other camps around the issue of inclusion; we led a petition delivery on the Playa and shared our stories as Black and brown Burners; and we led the first major Black Lives Matter march at Burning Man and disrupted business as usual. You can hear our story in a radio podcast on KALW, a well known San Francisco Bay Area radio station available online at https://www.kalw.org/post/ep-09-black-lives-matter-meets-black-rock-city-burning-man#stream/0 , and if you miss it it will be available later in the archives. We created this campaign because we are committed to Black joy, and we believe that all cultural institutions must do more to include and welcome Black people. One of the founding principles of Burning Man is Radical Inclusion. But there can be no radical inclusion without racial inclusion. Black people have shaped the foundation of American culture and deserve to be included in the best of global culture. We know that the health of Black communities is not just defined by the things we don’t want, but also by the things we DO want. Black people deserve spaces for play, relaxation and exploration. With these actions, Burning Man has aligned itself to a future where cultural spaces are more accessible, welcoming and inclusive of Black people. Favianna, Marlon, Erica, Daniel and members of Que Viva Camp

Congratulations! Zaviona Woodruff was granted a full ride to Oakland U! Because of community support like yours, she was able to make her college dreams come true. https://fox17online.com/2018/07/30/oakland-u-gives-kalamazoo-graduate-tuition-grant-after-missing-out-on-promise/ Thank you, Color Of Change

On January 19, 2021, the City Council voted to change the former Jackson Park name to Chochenyo Park. The decision comes nearly three years after the initial 2018 request and a months-long community process in 2020. Four City Council members approved the name. Councilman Tony Daysog opposed. Alameda’s first park was named after President Andrew Jackson in 1909. In 2018, we petitioned to Rename Jackson Park because Andrew Jackson’s “oppression of African and Native American peoples. Chochenyo is the language of the local tribe of the indigenous Ohlone peoples. After the murder of George Floyd, Rename Jackson park reemerged and gathered over 1,000 additional signatures and pushed the Recreation and Parks Commission and City Council to dename the park. We also demanded an inclusive and transparent community-led effort “to rename the park to recognize the atrocities committed by President Andrew Jackson and bring justice and healing.” This spring, Alameda Recreation and Parks Department will install a new sign at Chochenyo Park and the City and Schools are exploring ways to uplift indigenous histories. http://renamejacksonpark.wordpress.com

Lonnie Brigham, Jr. presented our petition, as reported in the Janesville Gazette http://www.gazettextra.com/news/government/polling-place-to-remain-at-janesville-city-hall/article_8f5de97b-ef5e-5aee-9828-2dcdd6487a2e.html and the council was able to see that this is an issue that matters to a lot of people. They are going to find other room in City Hall instead of moving the polling place to the police department. Thank you to everyone who signed and commented--you have helped keep voting accessible for everyone! Becky Beach

The Mural was restored and on public view.