Topics
‘Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us’
On the evening of April 25 at the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, in Baltimore’s revitalized downtown district, more than 100 police officers in riot gear stood shoulder to shoulder, shields up. Six officers on horseback fidgeted behind them, staring down at a crowd of about 40, an odd mixture of protesters, journalists and protester-journalists.
Criminal Justice Initiative
The Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI) is a cross-class funding circle made up of community organizers and activist donors. Together we identify, fund, and nurture grassroots activism led by formerly incarcerated people working to transform the criminal justice system in the United States.
Baltimore Uprisings
Baltimore is rising up to protest the police killing of Freddie Gray, the long history of over policing and police brutality, and the severe under-resourcing of Black communities in Baltimore.
Many organizers at the forefront of protests are women, despite men taking center stage
However, the visibility, or lack thereof, of black women in the protest narrative has also been problematic; early in the week, religious leaders explicitly called for men to march in front of women, for the purpose of protection, which the women in the crowd largely ignored in favor of a more egalitarian marching formation.
After Ferguson: Conference Call looking at the role of the faith community in mobilizing around racial justice
Listen to the following conference call with Lisa Sharon Harper, Sojourners’ Senior Director of Mobilizing about how this movement is being mobilized and organized in the aftermath of Ferguson and how communities of faith can and are being engaged in this movement at this critical moment.
From the Front Lines of Ferguson
The incident was all too familiar. An apparently unarmed black man was fatally shot by a white police officer, in a predominately African American community with a predominately Caucasian police force. And yet there were meaningful differences between the April 7 shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, and several similar tragedies—including Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri—that stirred nationwide protests last fall.
Bending the Arc from Interest to Advancement
Funders engaged community-based leaders to delineate current efforts aimed at meeting the needs in the Ferguson area, as well as to identify gaps that present opportunities for additional investment.This document provides a snapshot of our environmental scan captured in the beginning of December 2014.
The Power of the People – SB1445 is a Strategic Victory With Lessons for Alliance Building
Arizona is a testing ground for conservative legislation that targets and harms communities of color and sets precedent for other states to follow suit, as seen with SB1070.