Intersectional Organizing

We—the research group of a grassroots think tank network composed of forty community organizing groups and national alliances in the education justice movement—are conducting a participatory action research project to learn from community organizers across a diverse set of communities and issue-based movements. Our project also aims to build relationships with these organizers to attempt to create solidarity in real time, learning from those efforts in a form of self-study.

On this page, you will find links to our Intersectional Organizing Essay Series and to the published articles from our research. For more information about our research, see our general project overview.

The following essays were produced in collaboration with the Peoples’ Think Tank. We interviewed these organizers and worked with them to create these essays. We believe that these essays offer important lessons for educational justice and other movement builders seeking to pursue intersectional organizing, connect communities and movements, and build solidarity.

The views expressed in these essays, however, are the author’s and not necessarily those of the People’s Think Tank.

Click to read more from our essays below.

Building Pan-African Solidarity: Political Education and Projects of Self-Determination

karen marshall, December 2025
Text | PDF

karen marshall leads Rethink New Orleans, an organization that supports Black youth in becoming critical, action-oriented leaders for systemic change. This essay traces karen’s political development through Caribbean and Pan-African socialist traditions with an emphasis on building genuine solidarity, both locally and globally.

Born Into this Way of Life: Walking Worlds as a Two-Spirit Warrior Queen

Candi Brings Plenty, June 2025
Text | PDF

Candi Brings Plenty, the ACLU’s first Indigenous Justice Organizer for Wyoming and the Dakotas, shares her story and experiences which led her to organize and fight for her wakanyeja. They contextualize their warrior work—at Standing Rock, in state legislatures, and with youth councils—in a history of intergenerational trauma.

Organizing for the Promise of Public Education and a Just, Multiracial Democracy

James Haslam, May 2025
Text | PDF

James Haslam, founder of Rights & Democracy, shares how formative experiences in New England politicized him to fight for workers’ rights, healthcare, and fully-funded public education. He meditates on past examples and current analysis of intersectional approaches to organizing for a multiracial democracy.

Breaking the Unspeakable Thoughts:
Building Solidarity through Struggle with Love

Manuel Criollo, April 2025
Text | PDF

Manuel Criollo, senior partner with Organizing Roots – a school for revolutionary organizing – shares a perspective on what it takes to work toward full solidarity. He takes us through his organizing from riding with the Bus Riders Union through fighting truancy tickets for Los Angeles students.

Bringing my Full Self into Organizing: Learning to Slow Down, Love, and Organize

Cazembe Jackson, April 2025
Text | PDF

Cazembe Jackson, an organizer with Right to the City, shares his experiences around Black Southern Cultural Organizing traditions and learning from BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity) in a fight for a world where everybody is treated with dignity and respect.

Click to read more from our essays below.