Black Joy

The African American Community Service Agency (AACSA), founded in 1978, is one of the only African American cultural centers in the Silicon Valley. Our mission: providing quality educational, cultural, social and recreational programs, services and activities in order to perpetuate and strengthen African American identity, culture, values, traditions, knowledge and family life, is at the heart of all programs.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. 

#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy.

The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.

The Black Organizing Project (BOP) was founded in 2009 in response to the lack of prioritization of Black people in organizing spaces. We started to build Black community power, and develop leaders in Oakland and across the Bay Area. Before this recent increase of mass organizing of Black people captured the hearts and minds of the world, BOP and other grassroots organizations dared to dream, and push for change that to many, felt out of reach.

Color Of Change helps people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 7 million members, they move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.

Color of Change leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities. We challenge injustice, hold corporate and political leaders accountable, commission game-changing research on systems of inequality, and advance solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.

Founded in 1989, Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. They challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people. EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.

The Equal Justice Society is transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts. Led by President Eva Paterson, our legal strategy aims to broaden conceptions of present-day discrimination to include unconscious and structural bias by using social science, structural analysis, and real-life experience. Currently, EJS targets its advocacy efforts on school discipline, special education, and the school-to-prison pipeline, race-conscious remedies, and inequities in the criminal justice system. The Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit also engages the arts and artists in creating work and performances that allow wider audiences to understand social justice issues and struggles.

The East Oakland Collective (EOC) is a member-based community organizing group invested in serving the communities of deep East Oakland by working towards racial and economic equity. With programming in civic engagement and leadership, economic empowerment, neighborhood and transportation planning, and homeless services and solutions, we help amplify underserved communities from the ground up. We are committed to driving impact in the landscape, politics and economic climate of deep East Oakland. ​

Essie Justice Group is a nonprofit organization of women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration. Our award-winning Healing to Advocacy Model brings women together to heal, build collective power, and drive social change. We are building a membership of fierce advocates for race and gender justice — including Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people.

At Facing History and Ourselves, we believe the bigotry and hate that we witness today are the legacy of brutal injustices of the past. Facing our collective history and how it informs our attitudes and behaviors allows us to choose a world of equity and justice. Facing History’s resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history; we help students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives. Through our partnership with educators around the world, Facing History and Ourselves reaches millions of students in thousands of classrooms every year.

Hate Is A Virus is a nonprofit community of mobilizers and amplifiers that exists to dismantle racism and hate. #HateIsAVirus

Mobilizing communities to participate in local and national campaigns, creating safe spaces for dialogue and education, and providing actionable steps and funding in partnership with trusted community leaders and organizations.

This includes programs related to mental health, community-based solutions for safety, representation, solidarity-building, and so much more.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is the nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition. Their work focuses on democracy, justice, inclusion and opportunity.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a legal organization fighting for racial justice.

Real change happens at a local level. Not In Our Town (NIOT) focuses on solutions that inspire and empower communities. With film, social media, and organization tools, Not In Our Town helps local leaders build vibrant, diverse cities and towns, where everyone is encouraged to participate.

TGI Justice Project is a group of transgender, gender-variant and intersex people, inside and outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers, creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom. We work in collaboration with others to forge a culture of resistance and resilience to strengthen us for the fight against human rights abuses, imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures. We seek to create a world rooted in self-determination, freedom of expression, and gender justice.

It all started with a poster. United Against Hate Week is a call for local civic action to stop the hate and implicit biases that are a dangerous threat to the safety and civility of our neighborhoods, towns and cities. We hope all cities and towns will join us in the movement against bias and bullying during United Against Hate Week.

SURJ San Mateo is a group of people who organize, mobilize and educate white folks and other folks with privilege for racial justice in San Mateo County. SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) is part of a multiracial movement and the SURJ National Network with over 200 chapters and affiliates in 46 states. We work with accountability partners led by people of color to show up in the ways they request and are supporting issues such as affordable housing, immigration rights and police oversight.