By Juan Carlos Guzmán-Baigés, Executive Director, and Isis Garcia, Equity and Justice Program Manager, JustLead Washington.
Change as an Imperative in the Current Times
The last decades have marked a critical turning point for equity and justice leaders in the United States. Major shifts such as the legalization of marriage equality, growing public awareness of gender-based violence and greater levels of accountability amplified by the Me Too movement, the national racial justice reckoning following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others, alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matters; and the evolution of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across sectors are a few examples of how the public discourse around justice has been Reshaped in a meaningful way at a national level.
Much of the momentum for these and other social transformations has come from anti-oppression movements led by historically marginalized communities. The Civil Rights Movement, led by Black Americans, worked to advance civil rights for BIPOC individuals across the nation and created a model that encouraged other groups to strive for their own liberation. Women’s Liberation and the Feminist Movement arose when women involved in activism on behalf of civil rights and anti-war work saw that their own subordination was also a political issue. The American Indian Movement, surged into people’s consciousness when it coalesced as a national organization and undertook actions that brought it to the attention of non-Indigenous
Americans. Gay, Lesbian, and queer liberation movements developed in the context of civil rights and women’s liberation and have fought tirelessly in favor of queer freedom and equal treatment under the law.
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