Blog
From Student to Volunteer to Employee
My former colleague, Lia Kaz, started as an intern for Spirit in Action’s project, We the People: Working Together. Lia wrote this blog when she moved on in 2017. It is such a great blog about learning to be an organizer! Thinking of my own experiences that I’ve been writing about, I want to share […]
How to Keep the Conversation Going
As I and my colleagues at Piedmont Peace Project began to do workshops on classism and racism, white middle- and upper-class folks were often upset. They felt they were being accused of being “bad or wrong” because they had power and privilege – something they didn’t see. They often left a workshop upset rather than empowered to work differently.
My Surprising Harvard Experience – Teaching Organizing 101
In 1993 I received a Public Policy Fellowship from Harvard University. The Vice President of Harvard, John Shattuck, knew me from an award I had received honoring unsung heroes from the Petra Foundation. He suggested I apply for the Harvard fellowship, to be followed by becoming a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College.
Moving From Class to Privilege and Back Again
Tags: Black Lives Matter, classism, Driving While Black, linda stout, Ludovic Blain, Progressive Communicator's Network, Storytelling, straddlers
How to Navigate the Obstacles Talking about class and privilege is multi-layered and complicated. A few of us have moved up in class. I certainly have. Even if the whole family has moved up in class, people most often still carry into their adult lives the early feelings of inadequacy and shame I’ve described. People […]
A Precarious Life – On the Slippery Slope of Class
A Precarious Life – On the Slippery Slope of Class
I live in a nice house, drive a nice car, and have nice things – the way I always dreamed of living. It’s been a long struggle to get to this place.
But I still struggle.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – The Power of Coming Out of the Closet as a Poor Person
I and others at the Piedmont Peace Project (PPP) began to see and talk openly about our struggles with poverty. Yet, much of our membership was so uncomfortable talking about it! This is what I called, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” They felt ashamed to discuss our own poverty and would prefer we (or they) didn’t talk about it.
Talking about Classism. Who Are You and Where Do You Come From?
I didn’t know about class when I first started working as an organizer. I had never thought about it as a category, though I had been taught to be ashamed of being poor. I figured that somehow, it was our fault the way we had to live. A Pivotal Conversation I remember going to a […]
Becoming an Organizer Part 3 – Learning Moments
Tags: Collective Vision, Collective Visioning, community organizing, empowerment, leadership, linda stout
I started the Piedmont Peace Project (PPP) with the help of so many from my work in North Carolina, South Carolina and other places. The first foundation to support me was Chuck Shuford from the Youth Project who also became a close mentor. Chuck came from a working-class community and the same area where I […]
Becoming and Organizer Part 2 – Going Back Home
I had always said I wanted to go back to North Carolina to fight the KKK, but I finally understood from my mentor in South Carolina, Septima Clark, that I couldn’t fight them. “That’s what they want and they will win!” she told me. What I needed to do, she said, was go back home […]
Becoming an Organizer Part 1 – Septima Clark
I am often asked, “How did I become an organizer?” And how did I get to where I am today? As you shall see, many people were part of this journey. So I begin with the beginning, about 40 years ago. Leaving Home Ku Klux Klan harassment of me grew to a threatening, intolerable level […]
