Foundation:

Campaign = series of steps Image: mountain streams feeding into river

Principles:

People act out of self-interest (Tip O'Neill: "All politics is local") Small is beautiful

Complex issues tempt organizers & leaders to move immediately to the federated level. This can lead to missed opportunities, both for organizational development & issue development.

More complex issues can be broken down into a series of local or cluster (several congregations together) actions that prepare the way for federated action. The advantages include:

Linking the issue concretely to its impact at local/n'hood level Creating leadership opportunities at local level (through local actions) that expand local & federated leadership base Wining changes that address local symptoms of issue & help point way to more systemic response at city, regional or state level Creating public sensitivity to the issue & moving it onto policy agenda at city, or regional, or state level Priming the pump for larger, federated mobilization Advanced:

Campaign = shaping public debate (through enactment, or acting on the organizing/policy environment that produces ultimate policy response shaping how voters, politicians & other stakeholders look at the issue & what possible solutions should be considered)

Principles: Define the situation, control the outcome

For example, a year-long Housing Campaign geared at eliminating blighted properties might develop in stages:

1) A series of local (or cluster) research actions that point up how blighted properties are affecting a particular neighborhood & what resources are available to combat the problem.

2) A series of local (or cluster) actions that exercise local mobilization networks, lift up the impact of blighted properties on families in a particular community, and target lower to mid-level officials/power players to target available resources on a specific area or alter policies.

3) Ongoing research, evaluation and planning among leaders at the federated level to develop strategy & recommendations for federated housing action.

4) A concerted effort to generate editorials, op-ed pieces or other media coverage highlighting the housing problem and offering an analysis of causes & possible policy responses.

5) One or more federated actions to project larger power-base & move higher-level officials/power players to deliver more systemic or comprehensive response to the problem.

6) Following-up to make sure that new resources/policies result in removal of blighted properties at the local/n'hood level that gave rise to the campaign

These are some of rules that Jim Crow laws stated.

It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.

Birmingham, Alabama, 1930

It shall be unlawful for any white prisoner to be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a negro prisoner.

Arkansas, 1903

No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls.

Atlanta, Georgia, 1926

Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.

Missouri, 1929

Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with child by a negro or mulatto...shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than eighteen months.

Maryland, 1924 I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to

live.

That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.