We Are Down Home

"We Are Down Home (WDH) is a project to build a statewide organization of rural and small town communities that advocate for economic, gender, and racial justice. We will move North Carolina toward the values of dignity, safety, and inclusion through leadership development, strategic campaigning, multiracial movement building, and civic engagement that advances real reforms for rural communities. We are unique in our focus on building permanent, statewide organizing infrastructure in North Carolina’s rural places. Through our growing network of member-led, county- based chapters, we are engaged in year-round organizing. Our member-leaders, deeply rooted in their communities, are the heart and soul of We Are Down Home’s work. Our organizational mission includes a commitment to building multiracial and working-class member leadership, and our chapter culture inspires the deep and necessary commitment required to transform small towns and rural places. As we work to build We Are Down Home chapters across the state, we are mindful that the formation of a multiracial working class alliance is not inevitable, even given demographic trends toward greater diversity in North Carolina. By 2042, North Carolina will be a majority people of color state, but we can’t afford to wait through decades of policy-making that deepens the pain of black, brown, and white working people. Through our proactive organizing, WDH seeks to hasten a multi-racial movement of working people that spans the urban-rural divide and moves North Carolina toward racial, economic, and gender justice."