(Photo by iStock/adamkaz)
In 2018, progressives were still reeling from the once unfathomable reality of a Donald Trump presidency. But it was at that time that Alicia Garza decided to bank on hope. She founded the Black Futures Lab to center the political needs and demands of Black people.
“If we’ve learned anything from [the 2016] election, it’s that Black folks drive the progressive political power in this country, but rarely benefit from the fruits of our labor,” Garza said in a 2018 statement released upon the Lab’s launch.
Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza. (Photo courtesy of the Black Futures Lab)
The longtime Bay Area-based organizer gained international prominence with the Black Lives Matter movement but wanted to more directly account for the policy needs of Black communities. In 2014, Garza was instrumental in turning public anger sparked by police shootings of unarmed Black people into a global network of Black-led organizations. Activism based on outrage at the status quo certainly had its place. But it also took its toll. Burnout was high, energy was low, and hope for actual structural change could be fleeting.
The Black Futures Lab aims to work with advocacy groups and lawmakers to advance local, state, and federal policies that support Black communities. But its actual goal is much broader: It focuses on the nascent horizon, where Black people could not just fight for a world free of police violence and equitable opportunities but go that one step further and see it, hear it, and plan it. To imagine this world, Garza and her small staff of half a dozen embarked on an ambitious plan to ask Black people directly about what they had and what they wanted. They called this the Black Census Project.
Although they are not connected to the US Census, the Black Census Project had a similar goal of trying to capture the reality of everyday Black life in 2018. While falling short of their initial goal of 200,000 responses, the 30,000 responses that they did amass were instructive. Aided by progressive think tank Demos and the research firm SocioAnalytica, they released their findings in 2019. One of the takeaways was that Black people were highly engaged voters who were deeply committed to finding solutions for their community’s deepest problems. They were just too often ignored by people—most often white—who had the power to change anything.
Those initial findings paved the way for the work that followed. Overall, 52 percent of respondents said that politicians do not care about Black people, but that didn’t stop their political participation. In total, nearly three in four respondents said they had voted in the 2016 presidential election, 40 percent reported helping to register voters, and 6 in 10 Black women reported being politically engaged. Since the 2020 presidential election, the Black Futures Lab has been working closely with a network of advocacy groups and legislators to help shape a national racial justice agenda on expanding voting rights and combating voter suppression efforts.
The Lab is fiscally sponsored by the Chinese Progressive Association, a longtime tenants’ and workers’ rights group based in San Francisco. Its initial work was funded by nearly a dozen foundations, including the Akonadi, Carnegie, and NoVo foundations. In November of 2020, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded the group $925,000 to further its work.
In February, as America reeled from a series of compounding disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic and deadly winter storms across much of the southern United States, the Black Futures Lab released a plan called the Black Mandate. The plan focused on how to address the concomitant crises facing Black America, including ongoing white supremacist violence, the unequal physical and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and water and power outages due to frigid temperatures across much of the South. That plan includes expanded Social Security payments, debt relief, equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution, and putting a halt to deportations. The plan also calls for monthly direct payments to households reeling from the pandemic.
“The Black Mandate represents the first steps our leaders must take to begin to make good on their promise to deliver progress,” Black Futures Lab Political Director Keauna Gregory says.
The Black Futures Lab’s optimism also finds its expression in its persistent focus on joy. Arts and culture are key to its engagement with Black communities across the United States, and throughout the pandemic the group has hosted weekly film screenings and virtual dance parties. One recent post-election invite put it this way: “Black voters made the difference and it’s because Black organizers put in the work!”
That work, endless as it may seem, is just getting started.
Read more stories by Jamilah King.