Grandparents for Truth
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / 2023
In 2023, Moms for Liberty, an extremist group dedicated to advocating for book bans, anti-student inclusion activities, and far right school board candidates, was set to host their annual Summit in Philadelphia. Despite a string of violent threats and harassment cases, the revelation of ties to openly militant extremist groups, and the organization’s designation as an anti-government extremist entity, the event drew big press, large crowds, and a star-studded speaker lineup including Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump.
In response, community members in Philadelphia launched Grandparents for Truth, an organization whose mission is to protect the freedom to learn and to combat authoritarian threats. Grandparents for Truth launched their organization with a rally against Moms for Liberty’s Summit with actions aimed at revealing the divisive agenda of the convening and redirecting support for kids, families, and freedom of education.
Grassroots efforts were already emerging across the country to counter local chapters of Moms for Liberty and focused on amplifying instances of political violence including filing harassment cases against chapter members who disturbed school board meetings or threatened teachers, disseminating images of chapter members posing with militant groups such as the Proud Boys, and calling out a Moms for Liberty’s hate speech including a national newsletter that quoted Hitler. When Grandparents for Truth launched their counter-rally at the Philadelphia Summit, they joined these efforts and focused on countering the veneer of respectability and benevolence Moms for Liberty had built around the image of concerned mothers that covered up their aggressive and harmful threats and practices.
While Moms for Liberty experienced a period of rapid success in their first-year culminating in the Philadelphia Summit of 2023, the organization has since seen their support plummet due in large part to the success of organizations like Grandparents for Truth that have employed backfire tactics to decrease support for the organization and its partners and mobilize support for tolerance and freedom of education. The 2024 Mothers for Liberty Summit hosted in Washington DC was a testament to this outcome, drawing much fewer high-visibility speakers and only a fraction of the expected attendance.