Take 16: Ordinary Acts
Learning everything I can about the Movement.
We decided to drive from dad’s house in Florida to Chicago, on our way to next week’s gathering with Jon Stewart and The War Horse on the intersection of Journalism with Military, Veterans Affairs and Public Policy. That means we’re traveling through the center of our Civil Rights Movement: Montgomery, Birmingham and Memphis.
The Civil Rights Trail
For years I’ve wanted to visit these powerful cities and places along the Civil Rights Trail – in particular, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also known as the Lynching Memorial. This trip has been a chance to pay my respects to the leaders who did so much. And to reflect on how much more we need to do.
Most of the nonprofits where I’ve worked in the past decade are Black-led. I have learned from friends and colleagues about so many injustices that, as a white woman, I have not experienced. Nor had I understood that these hatreds and exclusions are still alive and well.
Racial justice has become the focus of my philanthropy. It’s inconceivable (to me) how people can hate. I want to learn and do everything I can to make change.
So here I am in the Deep South. Learning from the fierce courage of extraordinary people taking ordinary acts. The 13-month boycott that ended humiliating bus segregation. The power of community – when those who financed the bus system through their daily, disrespected commute had finally had enough. Attending a Sunday service in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. rose from pastor to civic leader. Hearing the Freedom Riders bombed by people outraged over an integrated, interstate bus trip. I knew the stories, but these incredible collections – the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Equal Justice Institute’s Legacy Museum showing the path from Enslavement to Incarceration (and a sister collection to the Memorial) – wove the dots into an awe-inspiring tapestry.
In Memphis we walked down Beale Street and tried to imagine the thriving Black community it was before the hawkers and tourists took over. Feeling the power of traveling so close to the day – 55 years ago – when Dr. King was shot for his beautiful, peaceful words of protest at the Lorraine Motel.
Funding Change Now
Many philanthropists have made fortunes by being smart problem-solvers. But they are not the ones with the lived experience to solve social issues like systemic racism. We need to support leaders from those communities.
Even fundraisers fall into this “I want to start my own nonprofit” trap. At least that’s what I consistently hear from students when I teach fundraising classes at community college.
My advice? Don’t. There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S. and 70% of them don’t have a large enough budget to be sustainable.
Learn about the work that’s already being done. Support the ones you think are amazing. Give regularly and often. Travel to places out of your comfort zone to hear from those who have had a different journey. They have blazed the path.
Know a great racial justice nonprofit? I’d love to learn about their work. Please …
What a powerful experience, thank you for sharing this.
Heart-rendering pilgrimage! Thank you, sister, for sharing this.