Featured partner: Color of Change
The organization: Color Of Change
The organizer: Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color Of Change
The mission: To mobilize participation in winning campaigns that accelerate progress toward racial justice — in criminal justice reform, voting rights, fairness in news reporting and entertainment media, economic justice, environmental justice and other critical issues that affect Black people, people of color, and all people.
The story: With more than one million members, Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. Founded in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, its purpose was to create an effective, powerful organizing platform for Black people and their allies to unite their voices, leverage technology, engage the media, and ultimately hold corporate and government decision makers accountable. Color Of Change works to change the rules of policy, politics, media and corporate practices at the local, state and national levels — to create a more human and less hostile world for all people.
The latest: Over the last year, Color Of Change has been at the forefront of holding accountable those who enable Trump and the extremist, right wing agenda he stands for, from corporate executives to local prosecutors. Color Of Change has led successful campaigns to get Glenn Beck (2011) and Bill O’Reilly (2017) ousted from Fox News; force business leaders to abandon Trump’s various business councils; force Paypal, American Express, and a number of finance and tech companies to cut off payment processing — and therefore the fuel — to white supremacist groups that are trying to create more attacks on our values like Charlottesville; and to make sure politicians stand up for freedoms instead of caving to corporate interests.
The next step: Color Of Change will continue leading the fight to end mass incarceration, police violence, and unfair bail practices, while holding prosecutors accountable to making decisions that favor community safety and growth rather than corporate profits. Most critically, Color Of Change will use public pressure to hold Trump’s enablers accountable and cut off his power base, end some of the most harmful and far-reaching policies and practices of his administration, and mobilize Black voters at higher and higher levels. Visit www.colorofchange.org to get involved.
