Learning how to practice democracy at a small scale can teach us how to rebuild it at a large scale

Yesterday, over 30 people in Menomonie WI gathered to discuss, plan & commit to win tenant protections in our town

This is what it looks like to build an independent political home in your backyard

This is our local food pantry here in Dunn County, WI.

Last year, 5,000 people used the food pantry’s services. More than 10% of the 45,000 people who live here.

Don’t tell me this isn’t class war.

Bob Zellner was 22 yo when he was a field secretary of SNCC. Raised in rural Alabama - his dad and grandpa were both Klan members - Zellner’s leadership was key in bridging divides with white southerners, bringing them into the movement, and building multiracial solidarity.

Ella Baker shared her wisdom with young civil rights activists, mentoring them to build their own independent organization - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - which transformed the movement via grassroots leadership, direct action, and participatory democracy

Fred Shuttlesworth was a fiery pastor in Birmingham, AL - played a key role in Freedom Rides, sit-ins, and the Birmingham campaign. Known for not backing down, he survived repeated assassination attempts "You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live"

Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper from Ruleville, MS, led the “Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party” to challenge the all-white delegation at the 1964 DNC in Atlantic City. Her testimony there sparked LBJ to call an impromptu press conference to cut off the broadcast of her speech

Bob Moses was 26 years old when he quit his job as a high school math teacher to organize voter registration drives in rural MS amid racial violence. A soft-spoken man, he was the architect of Freedom Summer, a mass-mobilization of 1,000 volunteers to challenge unjust voter laws in Mississippi

Diane Nash helped organize the Freedom Rides - a pivotal campaign to confront segregation of interstate bus travel. After riders were attacked, RFK asked her to call off the campaign, she said "We all signed our wills last night." She was 23yo.