We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do--and Why

What Organizers Read and Watch

233 What Organizers Read and Watch We asked our interviewees to think of books they would recommend to someone considering becoming an organizer or to someone who has been in organizing for some time. The variety of books they named is staggering. Ancient Chinese philosophy, the Bible, modern corporate management manuals, novels, poetry—even some books about organizing! Organizing A frequently mentioned book was Organizing for Social Change by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. As James Mumm said, “This is the best book in the English language on how to do organizing. Everyone should read it cover to cover and copy out sections and work with their leaders on it.” Another favorite was Cold Anger: A Story of Faith and Power Politics by Mary Beth Rogers, a book which focuses on the work of Ernesto Cortes, an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). More recent books by organizers include Rinku Sen’s Stir It Up, Michael­Gecan’s Going Public, and Edward T. Chambers’ Roots for Radicals. Other books about organizing include Roots of Justice: Stories of Organizing in Communities of Color by Larry Soloman; Linda Stout’s Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing; Si Kahn’s Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Organizers; Roots to Power by Lee Staples; Democracy in Action by Kristina Smock; Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World by Michael Jacoby Brown; and Paul Wellstone’s How The Rural People Got Power: Narrative of a Grass-Roots Organizer. Also check out Gary Delgado’s two books, Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN and Beyond the Politics of Place: New Directions in Community Organizing in the 1990s. For an historical perspective, there is Let the People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America by Robert Fisher and The Roots of Community Organizing , 1917–1939 by Neil Betten and Michael J. Austin. 234   We Make Change Three important works on Appalachian organizing are Fighting Back in­ Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change, edited by Stephen L. Fisher; Richard A. Couto’s Making Democracy Work Better; and Making History: The First Ten Years of KFTC (Kentuckians For The Commonwealth), compiled and edited by Melanie A. Zuercher. Faith-based organizing Faith-based (also known as congregation-based) organizing has been the model most written about, and organizers recommend the following works: Richard L. Wood’s Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America; Mark Warren’s Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy; Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing by Dennis A. Jacobsen; and Activism that Makes Sense: Congregations and Community Organization by Gregory F.A. Pierce. Two of Robert Linthicum’s books explain community organizing from a scriptural point of view—Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community and City of God, City of Satan: A Biblical Theology of the Urban Church. Also important for organizing with people of faith is “finding scriptural texts, whether it be from the Torah, from the Bible, or from the Koran,” said Makiva Harper. “I always try to understand the different stances that each of those books hold for doing justice and understanding what God’s call is for justice in the city.” Alinsky Saul Alinsky has influenced community organizing in the United States more than any other writer, and most organizers have at least one of his books: Rules for Radicals, Reveille for Radicals, and John L. Lewis: An Unauthorized Biography . Books about Alinsky include Sanford D. Horwitt’s Let Them Call Me A Rebel: Saul Alinksy—His Life and Legacy and David P. Finks’ The Radical Vision of Saul Alinsky. Other icons Organizers can benefit from reading books about, and by, the icons of social change—Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, Emma Goldman. . . . Leah Ottersbach really likes The Long Haul: An Autobiography by Myles Horton (with Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl). “I think that part of why it’s so great is that so many of the ‘Ah-ha’ moments of organizing are in that book. Also, they’re What Organizers Read andWatch   235 presented as if you’re sitting down with Myles and you’re just talking together and he’s telling the story. It’s very critical of things that are overly academic and overly intellectualized.” Movements A sense of history and historical movements is...