Resistance is Community
At its core, colonialism aims to divide and rule, to separate people according to constructed racial divides, and to exploit people across lines of class.
Recreating and maintaining nurturing communities is one of the most important ways that people resist colonialism. Through community, we develop possibilities to live and imagine in ways beyond colonial control.
Freedom Schools
Resistance STARTS WITH Redress
Oppressed communities grow in self-empowerment by redressing their experiences together.
Redress is what happens when a community studies itself and its conditions. It involves mentoring of youth, care for elders and ancestors, and sharing knowledge to make themselves whole again.
Restoration of St. Augustine
St. Augustine was the first African Orthodox Church established in Cambridgeport, MA. Learn how the Black History in Action for Cambridgeport (BHAC) are preserving this neighborhood center for reparative and restorative justice, refuge, and healing.
Group-Centered Leadership
“Beloved communities” are networks of peoples that work together for collective liberation.
These kinds of communities are not under the control of single leaders. Instead, they prioritize the insights of youth and elders, honor ancestors, and share wealth equitably among their members.
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![Freedom Schools]()
Freedom Schools
Freedom Schools were formed across the postbellum U.S. South and prioritized access to education as one of their political objectives.
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![The Black Star Line]()
The Black Star Line
The Black Star was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey with the goal of transporting goods and African Americans back to the Caribbean and West Africa.
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![Free African Society]()
Free African Society
Free African Society was Philadelphia's first black mutual aid society and religious center providing social, economic and medical guidance for emancipated African-Americans.
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![People's Free Food Program]()
People's Free Food Program
The BPP created more than 60 community social programs to alleviate hunger and poverty. The Free Food Program delivered groceries to community members and encouraged them to vote.
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![First Pan-African Conference]()
Pan-African Conference
Between July 23 and 25, 1900, African American speakers addressed a variety of aspects of racial discrimination and drafted a letter to grant colonies in Africa and the West Indies the right to self-government.
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![Jamaica's Free Villages]()
Jamaica's Free Villages
Leaders of predominantly African-Caribbean Baptist chapels secretly bought land from plantation owners and made it available to the freed slaves upon emancipation.
Cross-Border Assembly
Through word of mouth, communities develop across borders of gender-identity, class, ethnicity, race, and nationality.
These kinds of communities help us become liberated peoples and create new kinds of futures for ourselves.