Color of Change

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Color of Change

Formation	2005
Website	www.ColorofChange.org

Color Of Change is a Web-based grassroots organization that aims to strengthen the political voice of Black America. It was formed after the events of Hurricane Katrina, a powerful storm that devastated much of the north-central Gulf Coast.

1 History
2 Jena Six
3 Legal status
4 Personnel
5 Organizing Methodology
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Color of Change emerged in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and was a leading advocate of the Jena Six, helping that cause gain increased media, national, and international attention. Color of Change is still working on issues associated with the aftermath of Katrina, particularly the availability of housing to those whose homes were lost or damaged. One of COC's current campaigns is garnering support for Senate bill S.1668, which would repair and open thousands of minimally damaged public housing units.^[1]

The organization also heavily lobbied the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in 2007 to not host a Democratic presidential debate with the Fox network, which it argued "consistently marginalizes...Black leaders and the Black community."^[2]. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama eventually decided to shun the Congressional Black Caucus/Fox debate. James Rucker, one of the founders of Color of Change, argued that Fox was using its partnership with the CBC as part of an image building campaign to make itself appear more "Black-friendly." ^[3]

In 2008, Color of Change began a e-mail campaign to urge members of the CBC (those who are superdelegates) to endorse candidates according to how their districts voted.^[4] In February, 2008, Representative John Lewis, a senior member in Congress and the CBC, declared that he would switch his allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama because his district overwhelmingly supported Obama in its primary.^[5]

[edit] Jena Six

The Jena Six are a group of six black teenagers who were charged with the beating of Justin Barker, a white teenager at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, United States, on December 4, 2006. The beating followed a number of incidents in the town; the earliest reported was that of three white students hanging painted nooses from a tree at Jena High School in August, after a black student asked permission from a school administrator to sit under it.^[6] The Jena Six case sparked protests by those viewing the arrests and subsequent charges as excessive and racially discriminatory.

Before advocacy and grassroots groups began circulating information about the Jena Six case, it received little press of any kind. Advocacy groups such as Color of Change heard about the case from dedicated bloggers and activists who were following it closely.

The Jena campaign was such a galvanizing force that it actually tripled Color of Change's membership. ^[7] According to the Chicago Tribune, COC raised over $200,000 for the Jena Six defense.^[8]A petition created by Color Of Change called for District Attorney Walters to drop all charges and for Governor Kathleen Blanco to investigate his conduct.^[9] The Color of Change petition had received 318,420 signatures as of March 25, 2008.

In the months following the Jena Six rally, controversy arose about accounting and dispersal of the legal defense funds. Questions about the money were first sparked by photos posted on Robert Bailey's former MySpace account, which show him with quantities of hundred dollar bills stuffed in his mouth, an episode reported by the Town Talk.^[10]

The controversy grew significantly when radio host Michael Baisden accused Color of Change of being "shady" with their use of the funds. Some saw this move as a self-interested ploy by Baisden to promote his own fundraising.^[11] Color of Change responded to the accusations by posting posted links to canceled checks on their web site.^[12] In his November 10 report, the Chicago Tribune's Howard Witt noted that they were the only national civil rights group to be fully transparent with their use of the funds.^[13] Witt also raised broader questions about the funds, which totaled more than half a million dollars, reporting that attorneys for Bell claimed that they have yet to receive any money from him, and that the families had refused to publicly account for the donations.^[13]

[edit] Legal status

Color Of Change is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation that engages in lobbying and public education.

[edit] Personnel

James Rucker: Rucker served as Director of Grassroots Mobilization for MoveOn.org Political Action and MoveOn.org Civic Action from the fall of 2003 through the summer of 2005, and was instrumental in developing and executing fundraising, technology, and campaign strategies. Prior to joining MoveOn, James worked in various roles in the software industry in Silicon Valley.

Van Jones: Jones is the founder and executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC). Headquartered in Oakland, California, EBC is helping to lead the national fight for alternatives to the U.S. incarceration industry. Van is now working to create environmentally-friendly, "green-collar" jobs for formerly-incarcerated persons, and is the driving force behind Green for All, a national movement to promote green jobs while simultaneously uplifting citizens out of poverty.^[14]

[edit] Organizing Methodology

Color of Change utilizes the Internet, and specifically e-mail, as its main conduit for communicating with its members. Web 2.0 developments such as social networking sites also contributed to the organization's scope and public impact, particularly in the case of the Jena Six.^[15] Rucker attributes the viral-nature of e-communications with helping promote the case of the Jena Six, and sees the Internet a powerful resource for activists looking to garner attention for causes.^[16] The Democratic Strategist also noted that major blogs and supposedly liberal media outlets were largely silent on the case of the Jena Six,^[17] while The Cornell Daily Sun wrote that web-savy organizations like Color of Change have been able to adopt new Internet technologies for causes of civic protest, but indicated that these new technologies should not be thought of as a total replacement for concrete grassroots work.^[18]