Provides a brief history of the key people, organizations, and events involved with community organizing over the last 20 years. Also discusses the distinction between social movements and community organizations and community organizing as a vocation. (LZ)

Assisted by a sophisticated telecommunications system, 90 small, rural Minnesota schools collaborated to influence state legislation regarding funding equity and other issues. Small-school strategies for building political activism include seizing available opportunities, developing leadership capacity, involving political constituents,…

Because many key decisions affecting education's future will be made in the political arena, principals must become more politically involved and acquire the necessary skills to influence policy outcomes. To prepare for the public debate, principals must recognize that the present political culture favors open market competition, articulate a…

Three documents of the "500 Years of Resistance" movement, which held continental meetings of indigenous peoples in July 1990 and October 1991, reject the celebration of the Columbus Quincentenary and call for true democracy and human rights for the Americas' indigenous peoples and an end to neocolonialism and social inequality. (SV)

The story of one environmentalist currently serving time in a federal penitentiary presents personal perspectives on engaging in illegal activities to expose environmental destruction to the public. (MCO)

Discusses the Black struggle for equality, particularly in the post-World War II period, its influence on other American minorities, and its potential impact in international affairs. (DM)

Discusses several weak spots in critical communication research. Argues that critical communication scholars should privilege journalism, engage in activism, and incorporate capitalism into the heart of their calculations. (SR)

Explores the example of the indigenous Innu community in Labrador, Canada, in relation to past and present patterns of exploitation of land and stigmatization of language and culture by European colonizers. Examines how the Innu community has invested time and effort to wrest control of their lives from non-Innu. Describes how this process has…

Examines specific collective identity and political expression of the rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. Reveals a multi-layered political strategy that has been conscientiously designed and implemented to instigate a social movement. Prioritizes the voices of marginalized Black peoples and provides raw narratives about oppression. (MMU)

Describes the Nashville (Tennessee) lunch-counter sit-ins in 1960, civil-rights demonstrations led by students, and the resultant boycott of downtown businesses by blacks and sympathetic, or uneasy, whites. Many participants in the Nashville sit-ins went on to larger roles in the civil-rights movement. (SLD)

Presents an essay written soon after the author's return to the United States after teaching at a University in China at the time of the Tiananmen Square tragedy. Explores issues of teaching overseas and the reality of Americans being caught in the midst of political turmoil. Remembers sacrifices made by Chinese students and teachers to test the…

Traces the history of the Harry Lasker Library at the Highlander Research and Education Center near Knoxville, Tennessee, from the first book donations in 1933 to its revitalization in the mid-1990s. Discusses the role of the library as a resource center supporting nonformal education for social activism and the contributions of librarians Hilda…

Examines three traditional organizational theories on social action movement and applies Aldon Morris's analytical framework for understanding collective social action to the emergence of the modern U.S. gay civil rights movement. Concludes that social workers should gain access to and support indigenous social structures to assist oppressed…

Explores how to address the perceptual barriers that dissuade student involvement in social and political issues, including feelings of resignation and helplessness, belief that they must be perfect in their knowledge and confidence before tackling such issues, lack of real knowledge about role models, and a disconnection between smaller,…

Responses from 565 of 1,200 former urban residents who moved to a simpler rural lifestyle show that they hold progressive views on environmental and social issues. However, their levels of community organizing and activism are much more modest. (SK)