STORIES

When the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce faced backlash for supporting racial equity, local activists and businesses rallied in response. Through a Unity Walk and targeted outreach, they turned opposition into an opportunity to grow minority business membership and strengthen community support. The effort didn’t silence the Chamber—it emboldened their commitment to justice.

In 2014, after 27 years in power, Burkina Faso’s then president Blaise Compaoré sought to remove term limits so that he could remain in power indefinitely. While Compaoré had long functioned as a semi-authoritarian leader, removing term limits would have made a shift to democracy significantly more difficult. Sensing a unique (and fleeting) opportunity, the youth of Burkina Faso gathered together to lead a transformative protest movement which revealed the authoritarian nature of such a move and reframed a seemingly dire situation as an opportunity for the people to work together to make change by taking to the streets.

In a shock move in early December 2024, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared martial law – banning all political activities, gatherings, and essentially any act of opposition to the government. While President Yoon’s authoritarian leanings were not secret, the abruptness of this development caught many South Koreans off guard. Nevertheless, they did not let the benefit of surprise undercut their opposition.

Sanctuary cities and faith-based spaces have a lengthy history in the United States, but they became a particularly contentious–and important–practice during President Trump’s first term. Donald Trump came into office on a wave of rhetoric demonizing undocumented immigrants and a commitment to increasing deportations. With the advance warning, a wide network of immigration activists, including many faith-based organizations, planned how they would meet the challenge.

The Standing Rock protests began in April of 2016 in response to the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation. While the protests remained peaceful, a mix of police, National Guard, and private security forces responded with violence, attempting to repress protesters. In response, the protesters shared footage of the violence across the internet. As the videos went viral, a wide coalition of actors – ranging from veterans to environmentalists or social justice activists – mobilized to defend the protesters and their cause.

A week after taking office in 2017, then President Donald Trump issued the “Muslim Ban,” an executive order which immediately halted travel from seven predominantly muslim countries. As a result, people around the world were stranded in airports and legal residents of the US were being unlawfully detained by their government. The response was swift; a mass of people flooded to airports to show solidarity and reveal to the wider world the harmful and discriminatory nature of the act.

In 2019, Eli Bazan’s all-ages drag show in Colorado received an influx of hate mail that included death threats and plans to lock the doors and burn the building. In response Bazan stood guard at the event, and continued to do so at following events, recruiting a growing group of volunteers seeking to protect LGBTQ+ youth events and the families that attended them.  

When residents of Enid, Oklahoma (population: less than 50,00) learned that the city had elected a person rumored to be a white nationalist to the city council, they organized.  They formed the Enid Social Justice Committee (ESJC) and engaged in a campaign that shone a spotlight on the council member’s views and past actions. For months, through peaceful protest and sustained advocacy at city council meetings, their campaign garnered press attention for their revelations.

On March 7th, 1965, hundreds of people began to march peacefully in Selma, but the work leading up to that day began well before. For years, groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had been holding lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides to advocate for equal rights for Black Americans…