Welcome to the Facing Race Blog, a place to highlight announcements about the Facing Race conference, elevate ideas and discussions about racial equity and advancing racial justice, and to bridge partnerships as we prepare to produce our first virtual Facing Race ever.
Facing Race: A National Virtual Conference is presented by Race Forward, a national non-profit working to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. A unique collaborative space for racial justice movement making, Facing Race is the largest multiracial, inter-generational gathering for organizers, educators, creatives, and other leaders.
For over 15 years, Race Forward has brought you an incredible conference experience that has hosted over 4,000 attendees from all over the world to convene, organize and mobilize for a more equitable future. Previous Facing Race National Conferences have been held in Atlanta, Baltimore, Berkeley, Chicago, Dallas, Oakland, New York, and Detroit.
It is with deep love and care for our Facing Race community that we make alternative plans due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. In everything we do, Race Forward centers the safety and well-being of our attendees and our staff. Facing Race 2020 is going virtual and our partners in North Carolina will continue to serve as our “host committee” for the event, and will march on with us in deep collaboration. The conference dates have been moved to November 10 - 12, 2020, and all of the sessions, presentations, and plenaries will be entirely online.
To say the least, 2020 has been a tumultuous year. No one could have predicted these events that have deeply affected our communities, the moments that have been imprinted in our collective memory, the inequities that persist in our public healthcare systems and the profound injustices of our law enforcement. We are experiencing the greatest attack on civil rights and voting rights in our nation's history. Democracy is under siege, quite literally.
Like those who came before us, we must strive and we must organize to create and build the society we want to live in together. It is a decisive and furious moment in our movement, a time to press forward as a coalition of movement makers. In the words of the late champion and icon, Rep. John Lewis, “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."
Join us in November, and let's get into good trouble. Register today. And for the latest updates on Facing Race, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Subscribe to our newsletter too!