2024 ABSI set to launch in July

Social and economic justice movements have collectively failed to expand opportunities for Black thought leaders and strategists. In response to this inequity, Jobs With Justice launched the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative (ABSI) in 2020. Our unwavering commitment is to create cohorts of Black economic justice and labor-focused strategists who are dedicated to leading, developing, and advancing policies and campaigns that support the collective power-building of working people, particularly in the South.

After ABSI launched in 2020, we inducted four ABSI Fellows into the inaugural cohort in the Spring of 2022. Each fellow was placed in organizing campaigns throughout the South:

  • Nichel Dunlap-Thompson partnered with the United Steel Workers to demand that Giti Tire invest in the Chester, SC community and hire local workers.
  • Eric Hall worked with the United Auto Workers to organize at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and a Volvo plant in Montogomery, Alabama.
  • Anastancia Cuna organized with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Atlanta, GA.
  • Shechel Williams joined Jobs to Move America in Birmingham, AL, to ensure that workers and communities reap real benefits from federal investments of public tax dollars in private corporations.

This paid apprenticeship program offered a cohort of Black worker-leaders direct experience in developing and implementing strategies that seek to expand organizing and collective bargaining power. Fellows also participated in a rigorous curriculum led by Black academics which examined the effects of race, class, gender, and power on workers across the South. Their stories and the ABSI ‘School of Thought’ were documented throughout the fellowship in “ABSI: Reviving the Southern Black Labor Movement”.

This Juneteenth, as we honor the power of our ancestors and celebrate the emerging Black leadership of the future, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of the second ABSI Fellowship cohort. In partnership with Clark Atlanta University, we’ll welcome the newest ABSI fellows on July 11, 2024.

The Advancing Black Strategists Initiative is our attempt to defeat anti-Black and anti-worker strategies that were birthed during the Confederacy, prevailed through the Jim Crow era, and persist today. Jobs With Justice is committed to getting the tools and resources into the hands of those most impacted by these harmful ideologies and practices. In the same spirit of resistance as the first Juneteenth jubilee, Southern Black workers will lead us on the path to economic and worker justice for all.

Keep an eye on this space to learn more about the 2024 ABSI Fellowship Cohort.

Become an ABSI sustaining giver.

In partnership with Morehouse College and the Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs With Justice launched the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative (ABSI) in the fall of 2020. We began with a vision to create a cohort of Black economic justice and labor-focused strategists committed to leading, developing, and advancing policies and campaigns that support collective power-building of working people – particularly in the South. 

With the significant need for Black leadership at all levels of movement work, the inaugural ABSI Movement Fellowship Program kicked off in the Spring of 2022. This paid apprenticeship program offered a cohort of Black worker-leaders direct experience developing and implementing strategies that sought to expand organizing and collective bargaining power with Black-led campaigns in the U.S. South, the opportunity to share experiences and advance their understanding of the ABSI ‘School of Thought’ in fellowship with Black academics, labor leaders, and organizers. With focused strategies that seek to expand workers’ direct role in creating, implementing and enforcing new standards beyond simply passing policy, the Fellows examined the effects of race, class, gender, and power on workers across the South.  

Jobs With Justice was thrilled to celebrate the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative Movement Fellows at a graduation reception on June 6.

  • Eric Hall
  • Shechel WIlliams
  • Anastancia Cuna
  • Nichel Dunlap

The reception served as a powerful venue to continue fighting against the repressive barriers that exist against the collective power of working people – especially Black workers – in the United States and the American South. The destruction of these barriers is the key to building lasting economic power and a thriving democracy for all working people. 

In partnership with the Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs With Justice launched the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative (ABSI) in the fall of 2020. We began with a vision to create a cohort of Black economic justice and labor-focused strategists committed to leading, developing, and advancing policies and campaigns that support collective power-building of working people – particularly in the South. 

With the significant need for Black leadership at all levels of movement work, the inaugural ABSI Movement Fellowship Program kicked off in the Spring of 2022. This paid apprenticeship program offered a cohort of Black worker-leaders direct experience developing and implementing strategies that sought to expand organizing and collective bargaining power with Black-led campaigns in the U.S. South, the opportunity to share experiences and advance their understanding of the ABSI ‘School of Thought’ in fellowship with Black academics, labor leaders, and organizers. With focused strategies that seek to expand workers’ direct role in creating, implementing and enforcing new standards beyond simply passing policy, the Fellows examined the effects of race, class, gender, and power on workers across the South.  

And now it’s time to celebrate these dedicated fellows! 

Jobs With Justice is thrilled to be preparing for the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative Movement Fellowship Graduation Reception. This event, which culminates the groundbreaking first class of ABSI Fellows will take place at our Washington, D.C. office in early June.  

The reception will serve as a powerful venue to continue fighting against the repressive barriers that exist against the collective power of working people – especially Black workers – in the United States and the American South. The destruction of these barriers is the key to building lasting economic power and a thriving democracy for all working people. 

If you’re interested in learning more about this reception, please contact ABSI Program Manager, Jason Tomlinson, at jason@jwj.org 

ABSI in the headlines

Reviving the Southern Black Labor Movement

Southern Black workers have a long record of forming unions to press their demands for justice—we once again need to build power at work as we have in the past. READ MORE.

Our inaugural 2022 Advancing Black Strategists Initiative (ABSI) Movement Fellowship launch just wrapped and what an incredible week it was. ABSI fellows, advisors, and supporters convened in the city of Atlanta at Morehouse College, excited to meet and build with each other, and to make good on our mission to invest in the next generation of Black leaders. The week solidified that it’s clearer than ever that we are uniquely positioned to fulfill that promise and the ABSI fellows will represent some of the best of Black organizing taking place in the country.

The first night of the week-long launch featured a reception for the fellows and all of us involved in ABSI, allowing us to put names with faces and interact with folks that we’ve heard so much about. The convening allowed the fellows to think through the unique position we are currently in and the need and mission of ABSI. The fellows especially appreciated Seitu Hart (CEO of Careers in Entertainment), who talked about the film industry, Atlanta’s increasing role in that sector, and the glaring need for more Black cultural workers in that space.

The fellows also received important training on several different fronts, from addressing tensions within an organizing unit to training around documentation and storytelling. In talking to some of the fellows, there is both an improved understanding of the specific work they will be doing in their respective locales and how to best journal and archive their experiences in ways that can push the movement forward.

One of the great experiences of the week was watching the fellows bond over shared experiences in organizing and the different campaigns they will take on to help build worker power in specific locales. One fellow, Eric Hall, celebrated a birthday, and some of us went out for drinks to celebrate. We also found out that a couple of the fellows, Shechel and Anastancia, knew each other from organizing work, giving us all a continued sense of closeness.

There was something special about hosting these powerful leaders in Atlanta, a place rooted in the incredible history of radical organizing for Black folks, from the Civil Rights movement to the important domestic worker fights of the nineteenth century. ABSI, and all the organizations it represents, would like to thank Morehouse College and the Atlanta University Consortium for playing host to us during this launch week and beyond.

We leave this week inspired after being in the presence of incredible Black minds—from faculty and staff to service workers—who all provided such an amazing and inspiring backdrop to continue our collective work to transform the future of the labor movement.

Now, as the Fellows continue their journeys to their specific campaign placements, the real work begins. We cannot wait to see how this iteration of powerful Black organizers can impact their communities and the world.

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