Jitu Brown talks with Sharon Smith & Johnnie Latner, co-founders of PULSE (Parents Unified for Local School Education), to discuss the monumental impact this grassroots organization has made on the education justice movement in Newark & across New Jersey.

On The Ground: Go Up Moses

In 2019, a Black person can walk in Walgreens and they cannot refuse you service because of the color of your skin. We can run schools, organizations and corporations. Delta Airlines cannot say, "we don't serve Black people." We can attend any college or university that we like and they cannot openly deny us access because of our race. Why? The answer is simple. As Black people in the United States, every right that we have is a direct result of community organizing. Community organizing is the people directly impacted by a problem, strategizing and building power to win policy change, or resources to improve their quality of life. For our entire history in this country there is a long and committed record of people speaking power to power in order to change their living conditions. Today, we see a resurgence of black led grassroots community organizing. Community organizing is not activism. Join the On the Ground family to learn the difference. This podcast hosted by Jitu Brown, National Director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, is dedicated to "spreading the gospel" of community organizing to the public. We are not in an ivory tower, intellectualizing about what Black people need to do. We are in these streets, waging our struggle for liberation. We are ON THE GROUND.