Tag Archives: Racial justice

Anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, Racial justice, SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)

INVITATION: White people and not giving up– a SURJ mass call

From Progressive Democrats of Benicia, December 2, 2020

BenIndy Editor: Dear friends – As you are no doubt aware, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida are enacting blatantly racist and illegal laws. They are not only rewriting maps. They’re rewriting history. Or rather re-rewriting history. It’s a re-do of the blatant backsliding after the multi-racial reforms that followed our Civil War.  This is NOT just a Southern problem. The South is OUR South, and historic racism in the US is OUR legacy, OURS to reform once again. I received the following invitation to all who are like me, a black-lives-matter white person, engaged in the struggle and threatened with burnout. Consider tuning in on Wednesday, May 20. Sign up here (or below). – Roger Straw

The email: White people and not giving up– a SURJ mass call

By Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), May 12, 2025

It’s rough out there. The onslaught of political bad news, senseless violence, misogyny, and racism is enough to make even the most seasoned organizers want to throw up their hands. These are the exact times– when we’re tired and feeling hopeless– that we can get curious and be intentional about how we sustain ourselves in this work.

We’ll explore these topics and more next Wednesday, May 20 at 8 pm ET (5 pm PT) at a SURJ mass call, “White people’s work to not give up: a conversation on strategy and staying for the long haul.” We’ll be joined in this virtual event by Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, former Director of the Highlander Center in Tennessee and movement strategist, and Scot Nakagawa, the Director of the 22nd Century Initiative and leading political thinker, who have been movement leaders for decades and bring hard-won lessons about how we stay in it.

On the other side of guilt, shame or feeling like we need to make martyrs of ourselves is a joyful, steady commitment. We’re working to get there together.

See you Wednesday–
SURJ

Showing Up for Racial Justice
2870 Peachtree Rd NW
Suite 915-2117
Atlanta, GA 30305

#belovedcommunity, #goodtrouble, #humandignity, Civil disobedience, Civil rights, Peaceful protest, Racial justice

Thank You, Rev. Jackson

“We will honor your life by taking up the work of public theology you showed us.”

Rev. William J. Barber II with Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., in the US Capitol rotunda, 2018

Our Moral Moment, by Rev. William J. Barber II, Mar 7, 2026

I am in Chicago today at the Rainbow Push Headquarters, where Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson gathered the Chicago community on Saturday mornings for decades, to pay my last respects at his final funeral service.

What do you do when a mighty servant of God has fallen? You say, “Thank you,” and you keep the work going.

Thank you, God, for creating, saving, growing, using, and lifting Rev. Jackson to be the servant he was.

Thank you, Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, for showing us what it looks like for a moral and compassionate leader to know that power should only be used to lift people up, and never to push and shoot people down.

Thank you for teaching us over and over again that the power of life and death is in the tongue.

Thank you for showing us how to take the complex policies in the political suites and make them plain for the people in the streets.

Thank you because when you saw poverty in the fields of the Midwestern farmer or the shacks of the Southern sharecropper or the slums of the city, you didn’t run a regular campaign, but dared to rally a movement vote and said boldly:

“My constituency is the damned, disinherited, disrespected, despised. They are restless and seek relief.”

Thank you, Rev. Jackson, for not only restating their discontent to let them know that someone see them, but registering their votes so they could see their own power.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson, for challenging both parties when you could have gone along to get along.

Thank you for telling the entire society that everybody is somebody because they are a child of God.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson, for telling and showing us then what we need to hear now – that the untapped power of this nation is in the Black, white, brown, Asian, and Native communities that are trampled on. The stones that the builders reject are the only hope for a cornerstone upon which we can rebuild a broken society.

They hold the key to our way out of this mess we’re in.

Thank you for being unapologetically Black but having love and grace and enough sense to always demand a rainbow.

Thank you for teaching us that when Black people and white people and brown people and Asian people are so broke they can’t pay their light bill, we are all Black in the dark. So together we must fight for the light of justice.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson, for teaching us how to…

Love anyhow

Keep on anyhow

“Run, Jesse run” anyhow

Believe in a better America anyhow

Keep hope alive anyhow.

And now, with Yusef, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Sangrita, Ashley, and your beloved Jackie, we will pick up the baton and will run on anyhow…

Build hope anyhow

Build new rainbow coalitions anyhow

Repair breaches anyhow

Build political power anyhow

Build the beloved community anyhow.

Because we trust God anyhow

The Lord is our light anyhow.

We know that all that matters is that we please and serve God anyhow.

Thank you, Rev Jackson, for letting the Lord use you.

You fought the good fight. You have finished your race. Sleep now, mighty lion. We will see you in the morning.

William J. Barber, II
President, Repairers of the Breach, & Founding Director & Professor, Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. Author, WHITE POVERTY, WE ARE CALLED TO BE A MOVEMENT, THE THIRD RECONSTRUCTION, REVIVE US AGAIN, & FORWARD TOGETHER.

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Justice Peace & Freedom, Peaceful protest, Racial justice

Film Screening in Vallejo: “American Agitators”

Common Ground IAF Solano-Napa will host a showing of the award-winning filmmaker Raymond Telles’ latest documentary, “AMERICAN AGITATORS” on Sunday, July 13th at 1:30pm at the Beaux Arts (Riverbank) building at 332 Georgia St. in Vallejo. [map]

“AMERICAN AGITATORS” demonstrates the efficacy of member-led movements built through patience and by listening. Award-winning filmmaker Raymond Telles has made American Agitators to illustrate how collective action can create long term, positive change especially at this critical moment in American history.

AMERICAN AGITATORS captures the remarkable story of organizing for social change in the U.S. through the work Fred Ross Sr. and many others such as iconic organizers Dolores Huerta, Caesar Chavez, and Fred Ross Jr. as well as current ones, all of whom have devoted their lives to the pursuit of justice and equality. The film is directed and produced by Raymond Telles, with executive producers John Heffernan and Margo Feinberg. 

Fred Ross, Sr. | California Museum, Photo by Ted Sahl. Courtesy of Fred Ross, Jr.

Throughout his life Fred Ross dedicated his life to organizing and mobilizing people to challenge police brutality, fight segregation, and organize voter registration and voter turnout campaigns. He channeled anger and frustration into building member-led movements to change institutions and policies to improve the lives of ordinary people. He worked from the understanding that while protests can draw attention to create sustainable change, persistence and organization are required to build power and give people a voice in the decisions that shape their living and working conditions. American Agitators, tells a story of how today, collective action can combat racism, bigotry, and injustice and help move our nation towards a true democracy

After the screening, Common Ground will lead a discussion on the movie and how it relates to  organizing in our own community.

For the movie trailer and for more information about the film visit  www.americanagitators.com.  

Tickets are $10 and all the proceeds will go toward the power-building work of Common Ground in Solano and Napa Counties.

To purchase tickets go to: https://www.commongroundiaf.org/FredRoss2025

#BBLM, #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-racism, Benicia Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, Citizen Oversight Board, Racial bias, Racial justice, Solano County Sheriff, Solano Sheriff Tom Ferrara

Benicia Black Lives Matter – CALL TO ACTION!

Do you believe Black lives matter? Then answer this call to action

By email, October 29, 2021

Benicia Black Lives Matter (BBLM) is a values-driven, grassroots, volunteer organization that is dedicated to affirming and improving Black lives in Benicia and beyond. Designing and monitoring accountability structures within local government and institutions—including law enforcement—is an essential part of achieving this mission.

Incidents demonstrating a sustained pattern of racial bias, excessive force, and misconduct within the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, along with Sheriff Tom Ferrara’s open unwillingness to observe accountability and transparency norms, are too numerous to recount here. These allegations of excessive, often racialized violence as well as documented support among his staff for anti-government and white supremacist ideologies, together with the sheriff’s refusal to discipline his staff for misconduct even when recommended by neutral investigatory bodies such Internal Affairs, should concern every Solano County citizen.

When it became clear that the sheriff was not meeting the requirements of his position, BBLM initiated a cross-organizational call to action spanning multiple municipalities, collecting volunteers and allies across many diverse groups and organizations. This coalition now requests help from this same community—your help—at the upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting, to voice our shared concerns and call for change.

This Tuesday, November 2, at 9 am, the Solano County Board of Supervisors will meet to consider utilizing Assembly Bill 1185 to create a community-based civilian oversight board for the sheriff’s office. Such a board would provide a communication channel between the Board of Supervisors and the sheriff’s office, allowing the supervisors to respond to non-criminal complaints from their constituents when the sheriff’s office is involved; create a process to file complaints independent of the sheriff’s office when public trust has eroded; give our community the reassurance that review processes are thorough and bad actors are held accountable for misconduct; strengthen the sheriff and his staff’s relationships with the community they are in service to; and improve trust in law enforcement in Solano County in general.

Anyone can attend the board meeting in person or via Zoom; the details to attend are available on the Solano County website (solanocounty.com). You may also submit written comments to clerk@solanocounty.com.

BBLM strongly encourages anyone who has ever considered themselves to be an ally, supporter, or accomplice in the march toward equity for all in this city, this county, and this country to take this opportunity to be heard. Solano citizens cannot have confidence in Sheriff Ferrara’s leadership and authority until there is an open, fair discussion about the value a community-based oversight board could create when confidence in Sheriff Ferrara and the sheriff’s office is at an all-time low. We all deserve more.

At the meeting, or in your email, ask supervisors to authorize county staff to move forward with research and evaluation of an oversight board, or to allow Solano voters to weigh in.

This is your chance to be heard, and to be a part of making change happen here in Solano County, in support of Black lives, and in support of the community and the spaces we share together. Please act.

https://www.vallejosun.com/pressure-grows-for-oversight-of-solano-county-sheriffs-office/

– Benicia Black Lives Matter, BBLM
http://beniciablacklivesmatter.com/
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https://www.instagram.com/beniciablacklivesmatter/
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