Program Organizer/Civil Rights Manager

Equal Justice Society’s Mission and Work 

Equal Justice Society (“EJS”) is transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts. As heirs of the innovative legal and political strategists of Brown v. Board of Education, EJS fights race discrimination by collaborating with social scientists and legal scholars and leveraging disparity data to establish the continuity of discrimination and to broaden understanding of systemic discrimination and how it manifests in the present day.

EJS expands conceptions and narratives of discrimination to include implicit and systemic bias by leveraging social science, structural analysis, and lived experience. EJS’s advocacy focuses on school discipline and ending the school to prison pipeline, equity in higher education, reversing the black women’s health crisis, race conscious remedies to health, economic, environmental, and criminal legal inequality, and truth and reparations frameworks to remedy centuries of anti-Black discrimination.

About the position

EJS is entering an exciting phase of growth and we are looking for an individual committed to and passionate about transforming communities through social justice strategies grounded in equity and repair.

The Civil Rights Organizer/Program Manager position is funded for two years. This position is ideal for an experienced organizer and/or recent law school or public policy graduate. The ideal candidate must have significant previous experience in community organizing and coordinating policy campaigns.

EJS’s Civil Rights Manager works to conceptualize, implement and manage a wide range of projects and initiatives in pursuit of the above goals and strategies.

1. Develop, lead, and implement a work plan on agreed upon priority areas to strengthen our Black Women’s Health strategies.
   1. Generate content and develop and steward relations with potential content creators (social scientists, health practitioners, academics) and contributors for the Health Equity Newsletter (HEN).
   2. Expand outreach and distribution of HEN including through SEO, social conversations and social media amplification
   3. Track major developments in the hair relaxer case
   4. Leverage social media to build narrative power and organizational partnerships at the intersection of racial justice, women’s health equity and environment/climate justice, leveraging the Hair relaxer litigation and HEN as organizing tools
   5. Work with LCHB, hair relaxer cocounsel and thought partners, generally on showcasing the litigation at events, conferences, hair-shows, especially in major urban markets
   6. Explore private equity partnerships with progressive cosmetic companies to shift the narrative toward black hair and body decolonization for health
2. Serve as primary organizer of EJS’s collaborative work as the co-leader of the Alliance for Reparations Reconciliation and Truth (ARRT). Facilitate the Alliance’s mission to educate the public about reparations; amplify and help implement the California Reparations Task Force’s report and its recommendations; achieve broad-based, multi-racial public support of reparations; and grow the base of multi-racial, multigenerational, and multi-sector allies who support reparations in California. In addition to EJS, the Alliance includes a growing list of Black-led and non-Black ally organizations such as Black Equity Collective, Catalyst California, AAPIFORCE, PICO California, Nikkei Progressives, and Nikkei for Civil Right and Redress (NCRR).
   1. Help to identify and determine priority areas in which to focus as part of EJS’s contribution as organizational co-lead, including growing ARRT’s organizational base, geographic footprint, and uniform messaging and marketing infrastructure, and issue focus.
   2. In coordination with external ARRT organizers, support the design and implementation of Los Angeles reparations organizing/mobilizing strategy for college students, teachers and academics, youth, youth and juvenile justice activists.
   3. Amplify and expand subscribers to funders table Reparations Newsletter

This position requires some travel within California for meetings, trainings, etc. EJS maintains a physical office in Oakland and offers staff flexible and hybrid work schedules.

Duties

Under the primary supervision of the President and secondary supervision by the COO and Legal Director, the Civil Rights Program Manager will play a role in EJS’s organizational development and capacity building, health equity work, Black women’s health equity, and reparations and reconciliation efforts.

• Coordinate Health Equity activities in partnership with our Hair Relaxer co-counsel at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP to support strategies related to hair relaxer litigation https://www.lieffcabraser.com/hair-relaxers/ and organize on behalf of and with Black women who have experienced adverse and devastating health impacts from certain beauty products
• Support and contribute to the Alliance for Reparations and Reconciliation and Truth (ARRT) collaboration
• Work with the legal team on organizing legislative advocacy and litigation enhancing ground campaigns regarding reparations, Black women’s health advocacy, education equity, and implicit bias elimination.
• Assist in convening meetings and events salient to organizing and mobilizing constituents and staff by preparing and disseminating materials before and after events and convenings
• Help coordinate regional events, seminars and convenings, including the preparation of materials, publicity, and collaboration with other groups, registration and arranging speakers and logistics
• Represent EJS at community events, partner meetings, and other events with key stakeholders
• Amplify EJS eblasts, announcements, tweets, social media messaging by creatively using keywords, hashtags and, influencers to drive social conversations aligned with EJS mission and programmatic achievements
• Receive and apply professional development, including engagement with community organizing coach/mentor
• Coordinate with EJS communications director to amplify messaging and base building by establishing protocols for outreach and follow up with organizations engaging with EJS for the first time or on discreet temporary events like speaking engagements

Requirements

• Experienced organizer with significant previous experience in coordinating policy campaigns in California
• Demonstrated commitment to civil rights, equity, and systems change for the betterment of historically marginalized groups
• 3 or more years experience engaging multi-racial and multi-sector communities and coalitions through social media, ground-level organizing and outreach, training, and support
• Experience in political advocacy, grassroots organizing, coalition building and/or media relations
• Strong writing and oral presentation skills
• Ability to work with community members and nonprofit partners across California and steward relationships with all stakeholders
• Must be team-oriented and able to work well in groups and coalitions
• Willingness and discipline to work effectively from a remote setting and to attend in-person meetings periodically as needed
• Experience in advocacy and systems change work on behalf of Black communities, in racial and economic justice work, and a willingness to learn and develop new skills with humility and a learning stance

Helpful links for more information on our efforts:

• Alliance for Reparations and Reconciliation and Truth
• Latest Issue of Health Equity Newsletter
• This Week in White Supremacy Newsletter
• National Implicit Bias Network