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This Women's History Month, Race Forward invites you to explore and celebrate the powerful legacy of women-led resistance movements that continue to guide our work for racial justice and collaborative governance.
When we look back at the most pivotal moments in our movements for justice, we find women and activists of color not just participating in resistance movements, but fundamentally reimagining what resistance could be. These visionary leaders broadened our understanding of resistance:
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Fannie Lou Hamer built political power in Mississippi despite brutal opposition and violence, showing how community-centered organizing creates powerful movements. Her famous testimony at the 1964 Democratic Convention showed how personal stories could mobilize national support for local struggles.
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Photo of Fannie Lou Hamer attending the Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 22, 1964. (Photo by Leffler/Library of Congress/Interim Archives/Getty Images)
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Marsha P. Johnson co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera, demonstrating how creating new models of community care could protect our most vulnerable communities.
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Marsha P Johnson at the LGBT Pride March, New York, June 29, 1975. (Photo by Fred W. McDarrah/MUUS Collection via Getty Images)
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Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press created space for women across communities to authentically share their stories in their own words, demonstrating how amplifying underrepresented voices builds powerful cross-cultural understanding and collective consciousness.
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Wilma Mankiller, as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, revitalized Cherokee self-governance by blending traditional cultural values with contemporary solutions, highlighting how indigenous wisdom provides powerful frameworks for addressing modern social, economic, and environmental problems.
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Portrait of Chief Wilma Mankiller on November 15, 1993. (Photo by Judy Weintraub/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X forged powerful cross-racial solidarity between Black liberation and Asian American movements, demonstrating how building genuine relationships across communities creates coalitions capable of challenging interconnected systems of oppression.
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SOURCE: Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center
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These leaders created frameworks that reshaped movement strategy across generations. Their work showed that effective resistance requires not just opposing injustice but articulating and building new models that center the most impacted.
Today, we continue this movement building legacy through Race Forward's work:
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Remembering Bloody Sunday
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Even as we continue to face unyielding threats to our multiracial democracy, Bloody Sunday reminds us to harness the courage, the drive and the tenacity of our ancestors.
“On this day [March 7] 60 years ago, our ancestors endured brute physical violence,” said Glenn Harris, president, Race Forward. “Civil rights activists were beaten for no reason other than having the audacity to demand the right to vote. While those who opposed voting rights assaulted the bodies of brave freedom fighters, they could never extinguish our ancestors’ yearning for the ballot box. In the same way our ancestors persisted, we must persist today in our fight against those determined to turn back not only the progress of the past decades, but the very notion that everyone deserves the right to thrive in this country’.
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Reimagining Resistance expands our imagination of what's possible in our fight for racial justice and democracy by spotlighting creative and some lesser-known forms of historical resistance and connecting them to our contemporary movements. The campaign highlights the diverse and innovative ways communities of color have resisted authoritarianism, while honoring the foundational role of Black resistance in American justice movements.
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Community members in Selma, Alabama commemorate the 60th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday” on March 8, 2025.
(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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Through participatory storytelling, we invite audiences to share their own stories of resistance, creating a living archive of strategies that strengthens our collective power to make change. Follow our social media channels to stay connected and stay tuned for more opportunities to participate.
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Get Early Access to Just Narratives!
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Join us at the Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity convening, the anchor event of Cultural Week of Action 2025. Just Narratives, held November 13-15, 2025, in St. Louis, MO, is ideal for narrative practitioners, researchers, storytellers, campaign and messaging strategists, organizers, cultural bearers, and racial equity advocates.
Early bird tickets are extremely limited. Sign up to be notified when they become available.
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Subscribe to The Fire We Face Newsletter
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The Fire We Face is a newsletter for those committed to protecting democracy, racial equity, and public service in the face of systemic threats. As we monitor the Trump Administration’s embrace of Project 2025 and other anti-democratic, racist initiatives, The Fire We Face will document actions targeting federal agencies and civil servants striving to serve the public equitably. Through in-depth analysis, reflections, and tangible examples, this newsletter aims to empower readers with the knowledge to understand and navigate these challenges.
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Services for Organizations
Race Forward is committed to transformational, sustainable change for racial justice. We provide services to help organizations develop and advance racially equitable policies and practices.
Our services are developed and delivered by a multiracial and multigenerational team of experts with extensive knowledge and experience in various areas, including policy and program development, leadership development and strategic coaching, community organizing, and racial equity.
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Follow us on Bluesky!
Given the current political climate and our declining engagement on Twitter, we have made the decision to remain inactive on Twitter until further notice.
To keep the conversation going, we encourage you to join us on Bluesky. Be a part of an ever-growing network of racial justice advocates as we continue to share engaging content that moves the needle to a just, multiracial democracy.
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John, we are stronger when we recognize that our freedom is bound together.
The struggles of different communities aren't separate battles but interconnected parts of the same fight against systems of oppression. When we honor the leadership and wisdom of those most impacted, we create movements that can transform not just policies, but possibilities for all of us.
In solidarity,
Race Forward
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