“I know it can be extremely hard, and I know it can be extremely dangerous. But we need y’all. We literally need white organizers to organize other white people.”—Rukia Lumumba
Over 400 people joined SURJ in conversation with with Representative Justin Pearson and Rukia Lumumba from SURJ’s partner organization, the Movement for Black Lives. Rukia and Justin laid out our movement’s vision for the strategic use of elections in working for racial justice, the importance of the South, and why, as the quotation says above, white people need to commit to organizing other white people.
We also shared SURJ’s plan for organizing in the midterms and which states and races we’re working on. We asked attendees on the webinar to join Block by Block, SURJ’s 2026 campaign to win and enforce results from the midterm elections, as “captains,” or people who are committing to phonebanking with us and organizing a crew of people to join them in action.
HERE is the recording of the call.
And below are some of the powerful quotes from the call:
“My perspective begins with a lesson that black communities have learned through generations of struggle – elections do not necessarily liberate us. Organized people do.” – Rukia Lumumba
“It’s important for people who have a little bit of privilege, and specifically the privilege of time, to use that and mobilize that and know that you are doing it in partnership and with the recognition that you’re doing it on behalf of the people who don’t have that privilege. And it’s an investment that we will all benefit from.” – Rep. Justin Pearson
“White people organizing is important because Black people should not have to carry both the burden of surviving white supremacy, and convincing white people to reject it.” – Rukia Lumumba
“Shaming, and blaming, and giving up on those folks will cost us everything. Everything.” – SURJ member Ariel