Forward Justice is a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South. To achieve our vision, Forward Justice works to: (1) Change laws, policies, and practices upholding racism and mass incarceration (2) Shift narrative, culture, and values connected to the paradigms of punishment, racial criminalization, and inequality; and (3) Build a broad base of people and organizations committed to accelerating a revived, thriving, and just Southern democracy.
Forward Justice directly aids southern movement-building with legal and policy expertise and experience as strategic communicators and organizers rooted in the south. Our interdisciplinary team utilizes a panoply of tactics, including community education and organizing, coalition building, policy analysis, movement litigation, and public education, to achieve joint strategic objectives for racial, economic, and criminal justice policy change. Moreover, we resource strategic communications strategies led by people directly impacted by oppression to build new narratives that center the morality of justice, equality, and repairing deep harms in our communities. We center women, formerly incarcerated and convicted people’s leadership, people of color, those who are low-income, and young people who want a say in developing our communities through engaging in work that encompasses our daily lives.
At this time, we are most excited about the following campaigns: Unlock the Vote which focuses on the removal of remaining barriers to vote post-incarceration based on previous felony conviction and substantially reshape electoral participation by those previously disenfranchised or justice-involved; Protect our Vote, which increases public understanding of the racially discriminatory origins of voter suppression tactics, increases voter access to the ballot, and strengthens the unity in the field of democracy; The National Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, support in building the power of the Poor People’s Campaign: in enacting a historic moral call nationally and in more than 40 participating states through an anti-poverty, anti-racism agenda for transformation, including eliminating barriers to access to affordable healthcare, a living wage, and full voter participation for criminalized and marginalized communities in participating states; Second Chance Alliance Mobilizing and Base-building, in the next 5 years will focus on the expansion of chapters across North Carolina, hosting a successful annual statewide Second Chance Advocacy Day, inclusive process to identify and refine policy priorities to ensure the dignity of those touched by the criminal justice system have what they need to thrive; and Ending Criminal Justice Debt which will expand local coalitions to develop and support leadership of directly impacted individuals, develop media tools that center voices of those who are directly impacted, develop community-informed toolkits for defense attorneys.
As we are gearing up for the 2022 General Election, we are asking for all hands on deck! We are so close to changing the trajectory of North Carolina into a region for the people, by the people. Will you help us in ensuring that our campaigns work to continue to Change the South, Change the Nation?