To honor black history is to celebrate black futures. In our weekly call to action, we will highlight different partners and organizations who are doing movement work today to create a better tomorrow. We invite you all to continue to educate yourselves around the issues confronting Black communities and to contribute to the leaders who are working to create solutions so we are not facing the same issues in the future.
This week our call to action is focused on the celebrating Black futures and the Breathe Act.
LISTEN: Ash-Lee Henderson of the Highlander Research and Education Center talks about the Breathe Act – “a love-letter via policy”- on this week’s The Activist Files. Ash talks about the work done to build “the biggest we we could” to create this transformative moment and the ongoing work to advance liberatory, political, social and economic agendas.
LEARN: Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in 2014 and now represents the largest mass movement in U.S. history. M4BL is seeking transformational change on every level so that Black people can thrive. In 2016, M4BL launched Vision for Black Lives which set the public and political conversation on the need to divest from the systems and institutions that exploit and harm Black people and to invest in Black communities, as determined by Black communities. And in 2021, the M4BL policy table is aiming to pass an ambitious Black-centered piece of legislation named “The Breathe Act” to formally demand the defunding of police and the commitment of public wealth to the safety of Black people so as to allow “all communities to finally BREATHE free.”
MORE from the Beloved Community: The THRIVE AGENDA is a bold plan for economic renewal that will create millions of jobs for a just, healthy and equitable society. THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER is a roadmap out of the current state of crisis that seeks to heal the wounds of the pandemic, the economic depression and a history of racism.
ACT: The Breathe Act is people-first, rights-based transformative legislation. Explore the Breathe Act summaries and champion it with elected officials – at the federal, state and local levels.
