Jim Dickson and I faced the door of the house in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. He had knocked at the homes of complete strangers many times before. Not me; I was in foreign territory.
I had arrived in the city a few months earlier. Before then, I was in Jackson, Miss., where I worked as a community organizer with Operation Shoestring. The Methodist Church-based program helped low-income residents. I was successful — organizing the first citywide rent strike, for example. But mostly I worked on instinct.
Bert DeLeeuw, head of the Movement for Economic Justice, believed I had potential and sent me to San Francisco for formal training. There, I learned the Saul Alinsky model and technique of organizing — the same style practiced by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama when he worked on Chicago’s Southside.
When I stood that day next to Dickson, co-director of the Communities of the Outer Mission Organization, I had begun putting theory into practice. I worried, though, that some maniac might greet us at that door. Fortunately, I didn’t run away. I stayed put. For nearly 10 years, I was a professional organizer, traveling around the country to places like Providence, R.I., Patterson, N.J., and Boston.
Stepping from her snowmobile into the national public square, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ridiculed community organizers. She doesn’t understand.
Let me help.
Community organizing is an art and a science. The work comes with enormous responsibility and unavoidable accountability. Its practitioners are at once tacticians, leadership trainers, logistic experts, arbitrators and inspirational speakers.
“We have to persuade people that they can be agents of change, and not victims,” says Martin Trimble with the Industrial Areas Foundation — the premier institution in the country for training organizers. IAF helps establish organizations linked by neighborhoods through faith-based groups. The membership in these organizations exceeds the population of Wasilla. The District-based Washington Interfaith Network touts 25,000 members.
In San Francisco, we persuaded disparate groups of residents to come together — in each other’s living rooms — and work for a common purpose. It was tedious, grueling and frustrating. The hours were long; staff meetings for organizers didn’t start until midnight.
“It’s not easy. There are times when I am so tired,” says Linda Leaks, co-director of Empower DC. “Then, I see people grow. Someone who didn’t even know where [city hall] was now is sitting before the council testifying.
“That’s when I get excited.”
Empower DC has instigated changes in District housing laws. Leaks has guided a dozen tenant associations in purchasing their buildings. IAF-affiliated groups in Massachusetts pushed Gov. Mitt Romney to create a universal health care plan. WIN persuaded District elected officials to invest $1 billion in neighborhood improvements.
“Every day we’re banging away and getting things done,” Trimble says.
Community organizers are critical to the continuance and strength of America’s cherished participatory democracy. For that, they should be celebrated.
Jonetta Rose Barras, an author and political analyst, can be reached at [email protected].
