The Economic Democracy Project aims to highlight and develop strategies that Black and brown communities can use to build economic and political power—beginning with four case studies spotlighting community campaigns across the U.S.

This case study follows the Texas Organizing Project as it worked to build power and equity for working-class Black & Latino communities in greater Houston after Hurricane Harvey—ultimately implementing a winning 3-part inside-outside strategy. 

Four executive and legislative actions President Biden should address in his speech

All of us — people of color especially — need our government to invest public dollars into our housing, our climate, our care, and our water. Community organizing is key to these efforts and to our collective safety and liberation.

"Water is — and always should be — a public good. Cutting corners and endangering the public to deliver profits for a private corporation is the height of greed and disregard for the people’s well-being."

This case study examines how community leaders forced the city of Pittsburgh to provide safe, accessible, and affordable water—and developed an accountability model in the process, by which ordinary people can oversee the public water utility. 

If Build Back Better is passed, how do we ensure that everyone gets their fair share? How do we follow the money from the legislation? L. Joy brings Taifa Smith Butler to the front of the class to give us the action items we need to make sure our communities get the most out of it.

Taifa Smith Butler joins BNC’s “AMplified with Aisha Mills” to discuss these inequities and what we can do to combat them.

Demos will host “ A Woman’s Worth: The State of Black Women in the Economy,” featuring Demos President Taifa Smith Butler and and former Demos president Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us, in conversation.