Working at the Grassroots Level -- Literally. Atlanta. July 15 and 16

We brought the Civil Rights Journey to a close by spending the last few days working with the Georgia Citizen's Coalition on Hunger. The coalition heads up a number of initiatives aimed at reaching out to the predominantly low-income, African American community where it is based. They seek to provide a number of services that the community would not have access to otherwise -- most notably, access to food. Not only does the coalition have a pantry and bread bank for people in the community, but they also have an organic farm from which members of the community get most of their fresh produce. Talk about activism at the grassroots level!

We spent two days working with the coalition on various projects that were identified as important to the mission of the organization. On Thurday, a large group of youth and adults went to various preselected places in the community to register voters. Although the time was cut short by an impending thunderstorm, we were able to register a number of people. It was also a valuable experience in grassroots organizing and taught us what it means to go door-to-door talking to people about a particular issue. It is not an easy task and can at times be very intimidating. But like most things, it gets easier every time you do it.

A second group stayed behind to work in the gardens. Weeds were pulled, kudzu was ripped out, and new seeds were planted after the big harvest of collards. For an organization that is often short staffed and stretched thin, this helped them ensure that their fresh produce stock would be replenished.

The third group worked on the adobe house. Without a doubt, that group got the dirtiest. The house itself is part of a youth empowerment program that is run out of the coalition and is meant to teach youth about the power they have within their own communities to take charge of their own lives. The house, like the gardening and the voter registration, is an ongoing project that many people have worked on.


Overall, our time spent at the coalition, while helpful to the community, also served to put everything we had learned and seen during this week in perspective. Here in 2005, what does the term "civil rights" mean? Unfortunately, it often means access to basic and fundamental rights like food and shelter. It also means being able to wield the power of the vote which to this day is often denied to African Americans. With the Voting Rights Act expiring in the near future, it is even more important that we continue to safeguard those rights that people fought so dearly for 50 years ago. It seems tragic that we are still fighting for the same issues that were being fought for during the era of Martin Luther King, Jr., but if we do not continue to fight, where will we find ourselves in another 50 years?