Building a Movement: Salsa and Social Justice

02:00 PM Jan 21, 2011

This past Monday we celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Thursday, we remembered the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. Without a doubt, both Dr. King and JFK used their words to galvanize and inspire people to organize with one goal in mind: creating a society where people received equal rights, treatment, and access regardless of class or color. 

From the Montgomery bus boycott to the March on Washington, grassroots organizing mobilized people to speak out against oppression; knocking on doors, leading town hall meetings, and posting flyers in every neighborhood so that the issues at hand couldn’t be ignored. 60 years later, online organizing has created new ways for communities to make their voices heard and to get more even more people involved in their call to action.

Today, JFK and Dr. King’s legacy lives on as social justice movements continue. Organizations like the Feminist Majority Foundation are using Salsa’s online tools to help free Iranian women activists and demand human rights. The seeds of organizing are found in communities here and abroad, but the online tools have changed and can bring us even closer to the social change that we fight for.

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