As we celebrate Black History Month, we have the opportunity to reflect on our culture, our history, our triumphs and all the mountains we still have yet to climb.

From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we have learned that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

In Richmond, several organizations and individuals are carrying the torch toward an equal and just society. We realize that all movements are connected as they all are symptoms of deeply engrained societal issues such as racism, classism, sexism and corporatism.

Although efforts to achieve access to public transportation, to promote healthy fresh foods and to preserve and protect our cultural history and heritage may not seem to have a lot in common, they are united in the same roots. We acknowledge that, for example, working on achieving justice for the LGBTQ community and supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan are both vital and neither can be ignored.

As a result of last month’s Virginia People’s Assembly, an annual gathering of people from across Virginia who are engaged in a broad range of struggles, several locally based groups are forming an alliance to build power while working together to recognize a common vision of health, prosperity and justice in Richmond.

These groups include Virginia Organizing, RePHRAME (Richmond Public Housing Residents Against Mass Evictions), Black Action Now, Richmond Transit Riders Union, the Richmond IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), Justice RVA, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) and Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.

KENDYL CRAWFORD

Virginia Chapter Sierra Club

MONTIGUE MAGRUDER Richmond Transit Riders Union