Developing Black Organizers and Moving the Ground

Since our founding in 2009, BOP has had a strong commitment to develop Black organizers.  Before initiating the project, we had conversations with organizations across the country and heard a consistent challenge in recruiting, hiring and retaining Black organizers.  We found that some of the  contributing factors to the lack, and overall absence of Black organizing included: lack of access to organizing training– especially for working class families who couldn’t take significant unpaid or low-paid time away from work, the absence of accessible specialized Black organizing training, gaps in Black-led Black organizations that could support organizers to work within their community and an overall lack of resources allocated  for Black-led organizations or Black organizing in general.  As we developed into a project and eventually into an organization, we decided that we needed to contribute to a larger Black movement and be a vehicle for developing Black leadership and Black organizing.

This is not easy work.

Still, even now, there is a critical need for more Black organizers who can organize and develop leadership within the Black community. Truth is, it takes more than just doing outreach, mobilizing people, encouraging community engagement or gathering input.  Developing organizers to do the hard yet authentic work of really listening to people, really seeing people and really connecting them to a collective group with a collective vision, takes an incredible amount of time and persistence. There is an immense amount of love and humility that is required for this kind of work. No matter how much an organizer has learned about writing a good rap, keeping good tracking systems and doing swift follow up–  although important—  the heart that you need for this work cannot be substituted.

The issues we are addressing are not theoretical. This is why it is imperative that we develop organizers who are from our constituency and who have been directly impacted by the issues and structures that we are organizing around. Many of the organizers that have come through BOP, paid or as volunteers, have experienced their own trauma.  The fight and passion comes through in a different way when someone’s own story is connected to the larger vision.  It means that while staff is campaigning and fighting against suspensions, expulsions, arrests and the push out of Oakland students, their own child is also being threatened, suspended, expelled and pushed-out. Investing in Black organizers is not just about developing a certain skill set  it is about committing to our collective liberation, well-being, and healing.

BOP has learned and continues to reflect on ways to strengthen our practice of  developing Black organizers. The NIA and Organizer in Training (OIT) internships sprouted from deep internal reflection about the need to support members, leaders and less-experienced organizers in their early years of organizing.  We thought about how important it is to provide space for people who are natural leaders but new to the “professional” organizing setting, who often don’t get hired in traditional organizations.  We wanted to provide mentoring and intense training because we know how hard and sometimes draining this work can be.  We also wanted to provide a pathway for those who find organizing work hard , but  equally inspiring.  We are excited by the fact that we have been a vehicle and political home for several organizers who have gone on to work in various areas of the movement and who have also stayed committed to BOP.   We will continue to develop strong leaders across generations as a central focus of every area of work we do.  Leadership development is taking place in every aspect of our work such as in our BOSS campaign, Baby BOP program, Youth Space Summer Internship and our Parent Space.

Anything that has ever moved in this country has required collective leadership and organizing.  Although we are often conditioned to believe that the ground is shaken by one or two highly visible individuals, it is what lies beneath and often unseen that has made all the difference.  An organizer is constantly moving and creating the space for other people to move. This work often goes unnoticed. What media outlet is going to headline a story about a bunch of house visits or one on ones? What reporter is going to write an editorial on monthly listening sessions with community members? Who cares about the revolutionary impact of political education series?

“An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip on a fault. The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.”-USGS website

Like an earthquake waiting to happen, when the stress and pressure that is constantly being experienced by those who are most marginalized has become too much, is met  with the constant movement towards the possibility of something much more– there comes a resounding call for liberation. The ground begins to shake and when that happens those systems that were built on the foundation of racism and oppression will find themselves unprepared and shaken. Grassroots organizers bring together the architects and the builders of a new vision.  We will continue to invest in them as if our whole future depends on it.