grassroots struggle
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Stories from the Frontlines of America
Change. Hope. These words were the mantra of Barack Obama's successful campaign to become the 44th President of the United States.
At a time of deep-sea change for America at home and across the world, his election has renewed hope for millions of Americans. None more so than African-Americans, whose volatile history in America has made us both Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreamers. But also for a diverse nation - and one descending into the valley of a deep economic crisis - that no longer can be represented accurately by the white males on our currency.
As President Obama prepares to take office, we cannot forget the words of the man whose dream he is said to have fulfilled. King spoke eloquently of the day when the content of character would eclipse skin color. But achieving this mountaintop moment with the election of the nation's first president of African descent is only one aspect of King's legacy. He also spoke of the power of grassroots organizing. In Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, written as the civil rights movement was at a fork in the road between pessimism and optimism and violence and nonviolence, King said, "Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands."
As the financial disaster promises more government debates about bailouts for corporations and industries and more hardships for Americans, the people cannot live on hope or promises of change. We must take responsibility for creating the politics we want in Washington and in the communities where we live. For as King learned in the civil rights battlefield more than 40 years ago, change is a bottom up process.
Grassroots Struggle seeks to chronicle that process through telling the stories of everyday people on the frontlines of change across the nation.
At a time of deep-sea change for America at home and across the world, his election has renewed hope for millions of Americans. None more so than African-Americans, whose volatile history in America has made us both Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreamers. But also for a diverse nation - and one descending into the valley of a deep economic crisis - that no longer can be represented accurately by the white males on our currency.
As President Obama prepares to take office, we cannot forget the words of the man whose dream he is said to have fulfilled. King spoke eloquently of the day when the content of character would eclipse skin color. But achieving this mountaintop moment with the election of the nation's first president of African descent is only one aspect of King's legacy. He also spoke of the power of grassroots organizing. In Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, written as the civil rights movement was at a fork in the road between pessimism and optimism and violence and nonviolence, King said, "Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands."
As the financial disaster promises more government debates about bailouts for corporations and industries and more hardships for Americans, the people cannot live on hope or promises of change. We must take responsibility for creating the politics we want in Washington and in the communities where we live. For as King learned in the civil rights battlefield more than 40 years ago, change is a bottom up process.
Grassroots Struggle seeks to chronicle that process through telling the stories of everyday people on the frontlines of change across the nation.
