Energize Book Blog

Paul Revere earned his living as a silversmith. But what do we remember him for? His volunteer work. All activism is volunteering in that it’s done above and beyond earning a living and deals with what people really care passionately about. Remember, no one gets paid to rebel. All revolutions start with volunteers.
- Susan J. Ellis

To me, it seems that most people think of words like “advocacy,” and “activism” as being quite different from words like “volunteering” and “service.” I like the quote above because it shows that this is a false dichotomy. Activists are “volunteers in the vanguard,” helping to change public opinion and pave the way for needed reforms.  One important element of even the most traditional service opportunities is that they can open volunteers’ eyes to broader social problems and create articulate advocates for your organization’s cause.

Below is an excerpt from Susan J. Ellis and Katherine H. Campbell’s By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers that illustrates this concept.   Since February is Black History Month in the United States, this part of the volunteer story seemed especially relevant:

Typifying the intensity and commitment of all those engaged in the civil rights struggle was the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs in August 1963.Sponsored by more than four hundred national organizations, it brought over two hundred thousand black and white Americans to the capital in a reaffirmation of the nation’s democratic principles.

An effort that brought together all the major civil rights organizations, plus many church groups, the March was a climax and beginning. It served notice that Black Americans were no longer willing to wait generation after generation for rights that other citizens took for granted. And it brought America face to face with her full responsibilities as a nation. *

From that point on, events moved rapidly. Legislative gains, King’s march from Selma to Montgomery, the abolition of literacy tests for voter registration, the formation of black student unions and heritage-awareness groups such as the American Society of African Culture all contributed to a growing sense of black power and black pride.

Self-help projects became more numerous, harnessing the creativity and energy of black volunteers. Operation Bootstrap in Los Angeles, Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) in Philadelphia, and the National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization (NEGRO) focused on employment and business development. Black churches sponsored commercial enterprises, ran daycare centers, and opened job placement centers… Public education about the nature and effects of all types of prejudice was the concern of several volunteer organizations, notably the National Conference of Christians and Jews. NCCJ inaugurated National Brotherhood Week in an attempt to draw attention to the need for racial and ethnic understanding.

Civil rights and the rights of poor people were intertwined. The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) was the most visible grassroots effort reflecting this connection. Formed in 1966 by an interracial coalition of middle-class organizers, church workers, and members of CORE, the backbone of NWRO was poor, black women. During the next few years, NWRO organized demonstrations in welfare offices and lobbied legislators in an effort to reshape public policy relating to poor families.

As an assertion of the strength and competence of poor women; as a demonstration of the potential power in the fusion of race, class, and gender; as a channel for helping poor women transform their ideas of welfare into entitlement …NWRO remains a remarkable and significant episode in American social history.*

*Both citations from: Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America, rev. ed. (New York: Collier Books,1969).

Who were the “revolutionaries” that originally championed your organization’s cause? How has their legacy affected your work? How are you assuring that all volunteers in your setting become advocates?