Tonight, we’re having a Sunrise Call to Action for Black Lives at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT on Zoom to reckon with this moment and come together in response to the murder of Black lives at the hands of the police. Join us.

Dear John,

My name is Wally. I’m an organizer, an activist, but before all that I’m a Black man. I’m a part of the Sunrise Movement but I’m also someone’s son, I’m a brother, I am a part of a community. As I watched the videos of the murder of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery I felt a cocktail of emotions: anger, sorrow, and fear. Anger at the fact that Black lives can be taken so easily without regard or accountability. Sorrow for the families and communities of the deceased. And fear that I might be next. 

Tonight, we’re having a Sunrise Call to Action for Black Lives at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT on Zoom to reckon with this moment and come together in response to the murder of Black lives at the hands of the police. Join us.

The truth is that as a person of color, I have so much more to deal with besides the climate crisis. Before the UN report told us we needed a Green New Deal, Black communities have been under attack. Black people were slaves and we built this country—we couldn’t hold current jobs, or go to college, or vote. We struggled and we got those rights. However, it seems that Black people are still looked at as slave and second class citizens.

Look, I believe in the Green New Deal—I also know we need a multi-racial, cross-class movement to get that. So we need to show up for Black communities at this moment. We always have to be in solidarity with black, indigenous, and people of color and frontline communities who have faced oppression in this country since the idea of “America” came to be. Join us tonight to mourn, grieve, learn together, and take action at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT. Like our movement, this call will be a multi-racial space for processing and political education, as well as a space for identity-based group discussion time, and above all: calls to action. I hope you’ll join me tonight.

If you can’t join the call tonight, there are still immediate ways you can take action to support justice for Black lives in this country right now.

First, sign the petition to stand with the Minnesota Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block in their demand to defund the police and redirect funding to community health and safety strategies: bit.ly/DEFUNDMPD 

Second, donate to Black-led organizations leading the response to police violence and demanding justice for Black lives across the country right now—in Minneapolis, Florida, and Louisville—to ensure they have the resources they need in this moment:

Donate to Black Visions Collective (Minneapolis) 

Donate to Reclaim the Block (Minneapolis)

Donate to Dream Defenders (Florida)

Donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund (Louisville)

Lastly, as we reflect on how we can show up for communities under attack, I’d like to talk about an organization I’m a part of that is leading the fight for racial justice in this country—the Dream Defenders. Dream Defenders was founded after a group of students marched from Daytona to Sanford, Florida to protest Trayvon Martin's death and the failure to arrest his killer George Zimmerman. The organization is bringing young people together across differences to fight for real safety for our communities—not police prisons and deportation, but healthcare, housing, green jobs, and education for all.  Our political vision is called The Freedom Papers (read more here: https://dreamdefenders.org/freedom-papers/). To me, the vision it articulates is not too different from the world I imagine with a Green New Deal—a world of safety, security, true freedom, and justice for all. 

This Sunday, Dream Defenders is hosting its regular “Sunday School” online with musical, spiritual healing and grounding, and where we’ll explore these topics and more with Dr. Cornel West and former Bernie Sanders Senior Advisor Phillp Agnew. Link: http://bit.ly/ddsunday 

I hope you’ll join the Sunrise Call to Action for Black Lives tonight at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT or, if you can’t, I hope you’ll take action in one of the other ways I’ve shared above. 

Now is a moment for us to come together and commit ourselves to the fight against racism in all its forms. If we believe we can stop climate change, if we believe we can win a Green New Deal, let us also envision a world without racism and white supremacy, without police and prisons, and let us work to make it happen in our lifetimes.

Solidarity Forever,

Wallace, Sunrise Florida