Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: an organizing guide

by Daniel Hunter

Expanding on the call to action in Michelle Alexander's acclaimed best-seller, The New Jim Crow, this accessible organizing guide puts tools in your hands to help you and your group understand how to make meaningful, effective change. Learn about your role in movement-building and how to pick and build campaigns that contribute towards a bigger mass movement against the largest penal system in the world. This important new resource offers examples from this and other movements, time-tested organizing techniques, and vision to inspire, challenge, and motivate.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Social Justice, Anti Racist, Race, Justice, History

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2015

Reviews

[Lauren LoGiudice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend of mine lamented that although she does body work for people who are politically active, “But I’m not politically active myself, since so much of my job is staying positive for the work.” This book taught me the language to communicate that we all have a vital role in progressive movements. The organizers, the advocates, etc. - we’re all important. And we should give positive affirmation and value to anyone who is acting at their highest for bringing about equality.

[Ledayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent presentation of the basics of movement-building. It is inspiring and informative. Daniel does a great job of presenting historical and current movements for change and what makes them work (or not.) I was especially inspired by stories of "failed" movements that helped to make later movements succeed. Daniel's own experience as a successful organizer shines through and helps to ground the material and make it relevant and practical.

There are lots of examples related to mass incarceration, of course, but this is also a great and helpful read no matter what your organizing passion may be.

This is a book with depth AND it is an easy and quick read -- a great introduction for a beginner or a pick-me-up for an experienced organizer!

[Nikki Morse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dug into this great organizing guide on a snow day - I finished The New Jim Crow 3 weeks ago, and felt that it's only limitation was that it didn't discuss organizations who were fighting for change, or possible strategies for how to challenge the problems she so adeptly laid out.

This organizing guide details some specific organizations and campaigns, but mostly focuses on organizing principles and strategies that can get brought into any social justice group, effort, or campaign. From someone brand new to organizing to a seasoned leader, everyone can benefit from the direct, simple, and thoughtful way Daniel lays out his theory and the examples he uses to illustrate it.

[cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually 4.75 stars, but close enough. This book could not have been more timely - it lays out valuable and concrete organizing and resistance around mass incarceration of communities of color, and I found it incredibly relevant for all of the resistance that is valuable to me right now. In the midst of some fairly debilitating despair, it actually re-motivated me and reminded me of the places that we can stand in our authentic agency and power to make a real difference. It is a perfect book for right now. And I wish we had all read it years ago....

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inverted triangle example really made me think.

[Noelle Matteson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure if I should give it four or five stars. Wonderfully clear information!

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a helper. That isn't a surprise, but seeing how different types can work withing movements for change was helpful and reassuring. What I can't do personally can be done by others.

Short and practical, I think this is great reading even for people with a lot of activism experience, because it is so clearly thought out and written. There is a lot to do, and it won't all get done at once. That just increases the importance of finding thing to do and doing them effectively.

[Morgan Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel's book is an easy-to-read guide for individuals and organizers who are want to end racism and the prison industrial complex. (It is also a good guide for individuals involved in other campaign goals.) The strategies that he presents are concrete with specific examples. He also poses questions so the reader can help determine the next steps for their campaign. Daniel also requires the reader to examine what type of organizer they are (a little uncomfortable.)

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very accessible but educational read about actual effective ways to create social movements--there were occasionally sections where I felt like parts of the explanations/arguments had some holes and left a lot of questions for the reader, but generally a really interesting and enlightening book.

[L. Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short (90 minute) read full of clear things you can do to organize in your local area. Want to build something good in your community? Start here.

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but useful I think. Breaking down "activism" into more clear pieces.

[Lindsey]

A must read that easily breaks down difficult and abstract concepts. the drWings are simple and clear. cant wait to use this material with the teens I work with!

[Stephen Cataldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having joined countless groups that tried to change the world and fizzled, this sometimes reads like a Darwin Awards for social change, all those failures now seem obvious in retrospect. The book is an easy, fast (64page) read. Building a Movement combines common sense from many directions, it’s too much information for a blog and does well as a short book.

If you are rising up as an activist or organizer in response to The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, or to Trump's election, read it now. Watch your organization for the next six months, and read it again. This would be a very powerful guide for new Indivisible chapters, for example.

The Guide assumes you are smart and capable. It doesn’t lay out the day-to-day details the way some organizing books do. Instead, it gives a high-level overview, helping us realize when we are stuck digging trenches and failing to look up, pulling us out of ruts and habits. It adds a bit more detail to historical situations — like the Montgomery Bus Boycott — showing how it was really done, particularly helpful in finding a variety of roles that might be helpful instead of demanding one plan.

Daniel Hunter is very focused on the human-scale work: not Clinton or Sanders or the heads of large organizations but you and me in our neighborhoods. If you are lost as an activist in an organization and not feeling effective, you can use it to explore finding your niche. It shares ideas to get involved in different ways and still be part of something larger, and offers a powerful perspective-shift about places we can effect change rather than trying to squabble with the people most opposed to us.

I’ve long-ago read a few other organizing guides. This stands out for being a quick interesting read that nonetheless gets you where you need to go. I think if you read it, and then at least skim it again six months later, you’ll be able to diagnose and hopefully fix the problems that might otherwise stymie your organization.

[John Payton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expanding on the call to action in Michelle Alexander's acclaimed best-seller, The New Jim Crow, this accessible organizing guide puts tools in your hands to help you and your group understand how to make meaningful, effective change. Learn about your role in movement-building and how to pick and build campaigns that contribute towards a bigger mass movement against the largest penal system in the world. This important new resource offers examples from this and other movements, time-tested organizing techniques, and vision to inspire, challenge, and motivate.

**

Review

"If you want to take action to build a truly transformative movement for justice, pick up this engaging and insightful guide and read it with a few others. And then take a leap of faith. This guide can be your launching pad."

--Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

About the Author

Daniel Hunter is an organizer and strategist with Training for Change, an activist training organization. He's sought all over the globe for his expertise in organizing and direct action, having trained tens of thousands of activists in over a dozen countries. He has previously authored a compelling narrative bringing to life the vibrancy of direct action campaigning in Strategy and Soul. He is also a contributor to the books Beautiful Trouble and We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in 21st Century America.

[David Finger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting but a very interesting book nonetheless

I won’t lie, when I first started reading this book I gave up after a few pages when I realized this was not a book about the the justice system per se but rather a “how to” guide for starting a nascent progressive group. I wasn’t planning to form a organization or join one, but I decided to go back and give this short book a fair shake. I’m glad I did. Author Daniel Hunter not only gives a solid blueprint for progressive action, he also recognizes and helps identifies potential pitfalls. But perhaps most impressively, his real life examples (From Gandhi making salt to Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat) as well as his personal suggestions, (such as his idea for challenging the school to prison pipeline by incorporating over crowded school to challenge the construction of new prisons) not only add color to the book and make it more interesting...they are honestly inspiring and have the reader wanting to do more.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am the moderator of a faculty and staff diversity and inclusion book club at the school where I teach, and last month we read and discussed Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Typically, I meet with a few diehards like myself, and we just depress ourselves by becoming more and more informed about problems in our country that we feel powerless to change. After reading Daniel Hunter's Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, my hope that we actually can make positive change has been restored. Most helpful to me was changing the way we think about power structures and thinking of ourselves as "pillars of support" without whose support, the power structure falls. There is so much more to this book than discussions of marches and demonstrations. Hunter offers a blueprint here for how to implement real, positive change, and he provides examples of regular people like you and me who succeeded in shutting down unjust policies put in place by those in power. I highly recommend this book for anyone who truly wants to live in a more just and equitable society.

[Ai Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really enjoyed this- it's a really good, very accessible basic primer on organizing for people who want to do more. The examples were all clear and accessible, and I would strongly recommend it to people who read The New Jim Crow and want to do something, or for others who have hit a point in their social justice education where they are beginning to feel helpless and need to begin to do something. Sometimes its overly simplistic, but I recognize that it's intentionally so in a lot of ways.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent companion to The New Jim Crow. It is about how to organize your community for change. The one point made in the book that really sticks with me is....it isn't about how many campaigns one wins or loses...or how many laws, etc...but about how many HEARTS get changed. That is the measure of an effective movement.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hunter gives lots of advice for activists, or people who want to become activists, using examples from individuals and groups working against the current prison system as well as other social justice movements. This is a great, informative read for anyone interested in social justice, whatever the cause.

[KrisAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a very good little primer on movement building and how to locate yourself within the movement. Clear, straightforward, lots of examples, truly a great reference, especially if you are currently fired up (truly about any system of oppression, not just mass incarceration, which of course is linked to all the other systems of oppression) and don't know where to start.

[Kat O · Rating 4 out of 5]

brought some clarity to the work I'm passively and actively trying to do regarding educational equity, racism, incarceration etc

would be good for groups to remind themselves of goals and to ground themselves in their work. needed reminder about roles and needing some ppl from each realm even though at first I felt like that was useless/silly info

[Jeeps (immovabletype) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally I give star ratings based on personal enjoyment, but that's not really appropriate for this. It matters more that it's effective at what it aims to achieve, which is a clear-eyed, hopeful discussion of practical strategies for ending mass incarceration (or for any social justice reform, really), which ends up being a more emotional read than you might think.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

So useful and sensible.

This book is filled with wisdom and practical advice. As a burnt out community organizer in other areas than prison reform I found the stories and examples to resonate deeply. I've been one of those neutral people and am working on becoming an active participant in the movement. Lots of food for thought on how to do that well.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up for free a while ago. Very short & definitely thought provoking. If you don't have the time to go through all of "This is an Uprising" this is a great alternative. I thought the organizer/helper/rebel/advocate framework is useful, as well as the pillars of support model.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of really good and useful ideas presented in this book. It also gave me a better understanding of how movements work and the different roles people can play. Highly recommended reading.

[Joanne Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

First we abolished slavery. Then we finally had the Civil Rights Era. We now reach the "New Jim Crow" Era. This is a landmark book describing what we are doing to our young African Americans. and stopping further freedom and posterity of the African American people.

[Susan Clement · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Incitful

I loved this book giving ways to help stop the New Jim Crow of mass incarceration. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to help bring about the changes necessary to bring down mass incarceration and reform to an injustice justice system.

[Nichole Thorpe]

This is a must-read for everyone trying to find their place & purpose in a movement!

I like that this book got to the point and used real events and stories to highlight possibilities. It was a quick read. I read the entire thi g on my Kindle on a flight from Denver to NYC.

[Michiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

really helpful for framing and giving concrete steps for making a positive impact on our communities. Good read and I learned a lot.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful.