Executive Summary

The Equality Starts Here Collective offers a collective approach to building economic, social, and political equity for Black women in the South, specifically Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. Our Collective approach—grounded in an understanding that large-scale social change requires broad coordination—centers on a common agenda, shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a democratic governance structure with an identified anchor organization.

Decades of targeted disenfranchisement of the Black community, must be dismantled to create an even playing field. By implementing a proven and effective toolbox of interventions ranging from legislative advocacy to grassroots organizing, legal support, media and communication trainings, and direct community education and outreach, we will develop a sustainable infrastructure that accelerates Black women’s and girls’ leadership and activism, igniting change across the nation.