Base Building From ScratchAn Organizing Module
Course overview › Module 2 · Relational organizing in communities of color
Module 2 · 35 min · 5 pages

Relational organizing in communities of color

~35 min total · Earn: Relational Lens

Base building in the United States was not invented in 2024 by a tech-enabled startup. It was built and refined by Black organizers in the South — Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the field secretaries of SNCC — working under conditions of state violence. This module names that lineage, draws practical lessons from it, and explains what relational organizing looks like in communities of color that have been historically under-resourced.

A lineage of Black-led base building credit, methods, and infrastructure compound across generations 1932 Highlander Myles Horton Septima Clark training the trainers 1960s SNCC Ella Baker · Bob Moses Fannie Lou Hamer group-centered leadership 1996 People's Agenda Joseph Lowery Helen Butler year-round coalition 2014 New GA Project Stacey Abrams Nse Ufot base at scale 2016+ BVM · ProGA LaTosha Brown Tamieka Atkins joy + coalition Methods carry forward · leaders raise leaders · credit is owed
Module 2 overview diagram. A timeline of Black-led base building infrastructure that compounds across generations.

Pages in this module

  1. 2.1 Ella Baker and group-centered leadership
  2. 2.2 Highlander, Septima Clark, and the Citizenship Schools
  3. 2.3 SNCC field secretaries and the discipline of presence
  4. 2.4 What relational organizing looks like — and what it doesn't
  5. 2.5 Module 2 checkpoint