By Eric L. Hinton
They are ghastly images seared into the public consciousness. Much like the horror of witnessing innocent victims leaping to their deaths before the towers fell on September 11th, the images of countless blacks wading through floodwaters and clinging to rooftops with hand-scrawled “Help Me” signs, shook the nation to its core. The disaster that killed nearly 1,900 people, mostly poor black residents of New Orleans, and caused over $81 billion in property damage, prompted many across the nation to shake their heads in disbelief. Could this really be happening here? In the United States? In 2005?
At the time James Rucker was serving as a director of grassroots mobilization for MoveOn.org. The organization, which serves a largely white base, develops and executes fundraising, technology, and campaign strategies for progressive causes. Prior to Katrina he and Color of Change co-founder, Van Jones, had been kicking around ideas for something like MoveOn for black people. As Rucker sat in his living room watching alarming footage from Katrina stream across his television, he felt compelled to act.
“When Katrina happened it became this very clear moment around the country when you saw black people effectively had no political power. The level of disservice and neglect that happened in the aftermath was unacceptable. And it wasn’t as if the White House was reacting ‘Oh my goodness Black America is going to have our heads for this.’ It spoke to a political impotence on the part of Black America,” said Rucker.
A few days later Color of Change was born. It started out focusing on Katrina, fighting for everything from housing rights, to FEMA payments, to the protection of displaced survivors’ voting rights. In the six years since the web-based, African-American political advocacy group launched, 800,000 members have contributed to or taken part in various lobbying and public education campaigns.
Today the work is focused on an eclectic mix of targets ranging from the obvious — Glenn Beck and Fox News — to the unexpected, such as the Congressional Black Caucus. The fledgling organization has morphed and grown into a force that investigates claims of police brutality, insists on criminal justice reform, examines media misrepresentation of blacks and demands accountability from elected officials.
Among its victories Color of Change counts raising public awareness and money for the legal defense of the Jena Six, six black boys who initially were charged with attempted murder in the 2005 beating of a white student in Louisiana.
