SURJ Team

On March 7th at 8 ET, Showing Up for Racial Justice will host a webinar, “The Movement to Stop Cop City: a solidarity call for people across the country” to hear from frontline organizers in Atlanta and Memphis and find out how to take action to support their work.

This webinar is part of the National Week of Action and precedes the National Day of Action Against Police Terror on March 9th, which is co-sponsored by our national partners at the Movement for Black Lives. 

SURJ has been part of the campaign to Stop Cop City. A resident of the neighborhood surrounding Cop City has filed a claim against the city as the project violates the Clean Water Act. Governor Kemp and the Georgia Legislature are backing legislation to charge protesters with outrageously trumped-up charges, undermining, a foundational right within a democratic nation. 

“This is a fight at the intersections of climate justice, privatization, racial justice and abolition in Atlanta. We’ve built support for the campaign in majority-white communities who are usually silent or antagonistic towards divestment campaigns knowing white people have everything to gain from joining fights for justice, and this fight is no different.” – Erin Heaney, Executive Director, Showing Up for Racial Justice

For more information contact:

Grover Wehman-Brown
Deputy Director of Communications, Showing Up for Racial Justice
919-949-2038

November 8, 2022 [10:31 PM] Louisville, Kentucky – On November 8th, Kentuckians voted to reject the anti-abortion Amendment 2, which would have enshrined a total abortion ban into Kentucky’s constitution. Showing Up for Racial Justice engaged voters, most of whom are white,  in Jefferson, Boyd, Letcher, Daviess, Warren, Hardin, Madison, Estill, Madison, Powell counties as part of a powerful multi-racial coalition across the state with Protect Kentucky Access. Hundreds of SURJ’s members from across the US and leaders on the ground in Jefferson and Boyd counties made more than 110,000 calls into KY and held more than 20,000 conversations with voters – many of which were surprisingly intimate and vulnerable, especially for a so-called “wedge issue.”

Our highly-skilled callers moved a full 25% of people they talked to into the No on 2 position through our “shared stake” model of persuasion, in which our members are trained to connect deeply over the phone and across difference about their experiences and what they stand to gain in protecting access to abortion 

“So many people told us we couldn’t, but like Kansas, we proved that it’s possible in a so-called ‘red state.’ This win shows that working class organizers are an unstoppable force when we put our minds to something, come together across lines of race and class, and have real conversations with Kentuckians that start with care and curiosity and hone in on our shared values.” – Beth Howard, Appalachia Organizing Director, Showing Up for Racial Justice

“There are not enough words to explain how invaluable SURJ’s partnership was during the fight to defeat Amendment 2 in Kentucky. From day 1 SURJ was asking how they could best help and fit into the campaign plan, and when they stepped up to own something — they OWNED it. We wouldn’t have reached nearly the amount of voters we did if it were not for SURJ, whose members made more than 110,000 calls into KY.” – Kelsey Coots, Field Director  Protect Kentucky Access 

“Kentucky is a state that is 86% white. We know to win multi-racial campaigns in Kentucky, we have to have the support of white people, and this win shows that when we engage white people in deep, meaningful ways, they can come with us. We’ve seen that in our work across the country and it’s an example of the kind of good, deep organizing we need at a much broader scale to stop the MAGA right’s attempts at authoritarianism.” – Erin Heaney, Executive Director, Showing Up for Racial Justice
Contact: Grover Wehman-Brown, Deputy Director of Communications, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)  p: (919) 949-2038 | e: grover@surjaction.org

November 9, 2022 [11:15 PM] Louisville, Kentucky – On November 8th, Jefferson County voters elected seven Judges from the slate of candidates Louisville SURJ endorsed as the best choice to serve on the District Court, Circuit Court, and Court of Appeals. Tracy Yvette Davis beat Judge Mary Shaw, who authorized the no-knock warrant that the police who killed Breonna Taylor used to enter her apartment legally. Louisville SURJ selected these candidates for our slate of endorsements after hundreds of hours of court watching, where we tracked Judges’ use of cash bail, noting trends in how judges set bail based on  race, charges, and type of representation. 

Over 100 volunteers with Louisville SURJ contacted over 2,500 residents and distributed 2,500+ copies of the Judge endorsement slate. Louisville SURJ has been working for years to end the practice of cash bail, which holds people who have not been convicted of a crime in cages because they do not have the ability to pay. Eleven people have died in Louisville’s jail in the past year. 

“Tonight was the biggest inflection point in our campaign to end cash bail. For years we have knocked the doors of voters and observed judges in the courtroom. With every circuit and district judge on the ballot we saw an opportunity to make an immediate impact on the issue. We complimented our court watch program with interviews and questionnaires and endorsed a slate of judges who could make a substantive and immediate change in the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to be brought into our injustice system. With tonight’s results less people will go to jail on an unaffordable bail, less will experience the cruel, inhumane, and deadly treatment of that jail, and another step towards the abolition of wealth based detention was taken.” – Alex Flood, Kentucky Lead Organizer, Showing Up for Racial Justice

“In these times when the far right is trying to convince white working class people to align with those at the top instead of Black and Brown communities, we were able to get people to see we need judges who will center equity, transparency and bail reform.This is the biggest effort to elect judicial candidates committed to reform in Jefferson County in my lifetime. And over half of our candidates won. In a particularly critical win, Black working class progressive Tracy Davis, beat the incumbent judge who signed the No Knock Warrant that led to Breonna Taylor’s death.

With the lead of Louisville’s Black community, LSURJ was able to provide a margin of victory through reaching white working class voters for Davis.” – Carla Wallace, SURJ Co-Founder, member of Louisville SURJ