Applying Lessons of Historical Multiracial Struggle to Today’s Racial Justice Movement

Dating back to the 17th century, there is a legacy of poor and working-class white and Black people coming together, across lines of race, in resistance to the wealthy elite and racist status quo. Such historical examples of multiracial struggle can serve as a model for today’s organizers in the fight to end racism and build a powerful movement for economic and racial justice. This theoretical manuscript uses transformative organizing theory as a framework for analyzing and learning from a historical multiracial struggle in order to inform today’s racial justice movement, particularly for white antiracist organizers.