Race Forward has been one of the leading American organizations working on racial justice for over 40 years and has become a key ally for the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice.
Race Forward (founded in 1981 as the Applied Research Center) strives to dismantle structural racism through research, media campaigns, education, and institutional transformation. In 2017, Race Forward merged with the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI), at which point the organizations work expanded from working with community organizations and organizers to local and regional government employees and leaders. Faced with the current administration’s Executive Orders that threaten core values of democracy and justice, Race Forward is channeling its momentum into defining effective strategies for an American racial justice movement that needs to be bold, resilient, and unrelenting.
Here are just some of their many important initiatives and programs:
Facing Race Conference
Race Forward presents the biennial Facing Race conference, North America’s largest multiracial conference on racial justice.
Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE)
The Government Alliance on Race and Equity is a dynamic peer-to-peer learning and practice network dedicated to advancing racial equity in government, so that we all thrive where we live, learn, work and play. This network is driven by the active participation of 13,000+ public stewards, or racial equity practitioners, working in 400+ local, regional, and state GARE member jurisdictions. GARE racial equity practitioners work to equitably strengthen and steward our public goods so that individuals, families and communities can live long, healthy, joyful lives, no matter their race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, migration status, or zip code. GARE envisions a vibrant, just, multiracial democracy in which local, regional, and state governments work for all and race no longer determines life outcomes.
Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy
Narrative change precedes social change, and Race Forward recognizes the power of narratives circulating within public discourse and driving policy. Thus, Race Forward’s annual and nationwide Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy is bringing people of all identities and backgrounds together to spark action toward creating a just, multiracial democracy through cultural and narrative organizing. The cornerstone event is the Just Narratives Convening, a multi-day convening of narrative strategists, communicators, creatives, storytellers, racial justice advocates, and movement builders.
Colorlines
Colorlines was launched in 1998 as a magazine with the goal to amplify racial justice narratives. In 2010, Colorlines evolved into a daily digital news site. Relaunched in April 2023, Colorlines is now a multimedia platform for learning, connection, and action on racial justice.
Butterfly Lab
Butterfly Lab, a three-year initiative launched in 2020, brought together a diverse group of leaders with vast experience and expertise in advocacy, the law, human rights, policy, organizing, and popular culture to create effective pro-immigrant narratives that honor the humanity of migrants, refugees, and immigrants.