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Empower yourself and your community with guides, toolkits, and essential readings on civil rights, justice, nonviolence, and the enduring legacy of slavery. Our resources are designed to support self-education, spark critical conversations, and strengthen organizing efforts.
Whether you are an activist, organizer, or community member, these materials will help you deepen your knowledge, advocate for racial equality, and take meaningful action for social justice.
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Racial Injustice and Democracy
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and all other federal civil rights divisions have been decommissioned, gutted or politically repurposed. All funding that was designated for programs addressing disparate adverse impacts caused by systemic racism have been cut. Homeland Security Task Forces (EO 14159, Sec 6) have been stood up in all states, including Vermont (DEA, FBI, ATF, US Marshals and ICE). Funding has been exponentially increased for ICE officers and agents and detention facilities while federal funding has been pulled back from “sanctuary cities.” Executive actions (EO 14288) include legal protections, “indemnification” and directives to distribute military assets to law enforcement agencies. This is coupled with the threat to state local control of law enforcement agencies and the withdrawal of consent decrees (voluntary agreements with police departments and schools and DOJ; a work plan to achieve civil rights compliance). All of this further places Black, other people of color and other marginalized communities at extreme risk while shielding law enforcement from accountability.
In the United States racial injustice and democracy are antithetical to each other. As long as we maintain the former, the latter is at risk. Upending the work and progress made in addressing overt and systemic racism (civil rights, racial justice and equity) has weakened our national stability; compromised our rule of law, community safety and security. Unfair justice systems are not justice systems at all. Their intent is to create the perception of justice while benefiting the wealthy by providing them access to increased power. They threaten our democracy.
Unless this nation addresses the legacy of slavery there can be no true Democracy. As difficult as it is, we must embrace our past, acknowledge harm and repair the damage of the original sin. Civil Rights, racial justice and equity are fundamental to the democratic integrity and societal well-being of this nation. Our national history of slavery and segregation have made civil rights necessary to deter discriminatory practices. Civil rights also ensure fair access to social and economic opportunities and open the political process to Black folks and other marginalized communities. Additional strategies have been necessary to address disparate adverse impacts caused by systemic racism.
The rollback of enforcement of civil rights in the United States takes us to a time of the fall of reconstruction (1890-1910) when lynchings, and convict leasing were the order of the day. The work of exposing and mitigating systemic racism – the legacy of slavery (disparate impact) is now federally banned and designated as illegal. These roll-backs on civil rights and attacks on actions addressing disparate impact are meticulously targeted at dismantling an infrastructure that was designed to finally move this nation towards the more perfect union and the justice of her promise. Instead, these rollbacks and attacks take us back to historical patterns of maintaining racial hierarchies.
Soon, we’ll have more resources designed to support your journey toward civil rights, justice, and community organizing. Whether you’re learning, teaching, or mobilizing, these materials provide clear pathways for action, education, and reflection.
Action Toolkits
Step-by-step guides for organizing events, campaigns, and community initiatives focused on justice and inclusion.
Recommended Readings
Curated articles, books, and historical documents to deepen your understanding of civil rights and the legacy of slavery.
Multimedia Library
Videos, podcasts, and interactive content to engage learners of all ages on justice, nonviolence, and human rights.
Organizing Guides
Best practices and proven strategies for building inclusive movements and effective advocacy campaigns.
An Assault on Democracy
True justice, stability, and safety for all Americans is only achievable through civil rights and acknowledging and addressing the impact that slavery and segregation has had and continues to have on our nation today – systemic racism. There is nothing more important in the fight for the soul of this nation than the fight for our civil rights – The fight for JUSTICE.
Federal withdrawal of civil rights protections and the attack on all efforts to address the disparate impacts of slavery’s legacy are not new. It was an assault on Democracy then and it is an assault on Democracy TODAY! The stories being told to justify these destructive efforts are lies and will not stand. We can’t be hoodwinked with the grievance narrative that all of our work to address civil rights and disparate outcomes are in some way discriminating against our white brothers and sisters. We fight for civil rights because they are at the heart of the fight for the soul of this nation. We can not and will not allow the lives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, John Lewis Lewis and countless others who fought for these rights, to be in vain. We must finish the work that we started.
Immigration, education, employment, criminal justice, housing and homelessness, federal workforce, and global policy (USAID) policy are all being violently racially weaponized. The Department of Justice has been directed to divert resources away from good faith enforcement of this nation’s hard fought civil rights laws that are rooted in the spirit of the Reconstruction Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. They have redefined Diversity Equity and Inclusion as discriminatory and established it as a high priority for “prosecution”. From severely weakening the Fair Housing Act and Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) to modifying the scope of Title IX discipline enforcement of civil rights protections of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Education, civil rights have been dismantled. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been severely impacted and Health Insurance Benefit Discrimination Provisions have been eliminated. In summary, the DOJ has abandoned the enforcement of civil rights laws as we know them. They have instead weaponized the DOJ to pursue a political agenda (anti-DEI).
The social and economic outcome is that these exclusionary policies have placed us in a position where democracy is seriously at risk. The United States is now all but an autocratic state. That means that though this impacts us, our friends and loved ones and those who struggle most, ALL of us are impacted.
This is an emergency!
Soon you’ll be able to discover other impactful resources that deepen understanding of civil rights, justice, and the legacy of slavery. Each visual entry invites you to learn, share, and take action.
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