The Civil Rights struggle didn’t end in the Nineteen Sixties.

It didn’t begin there either. 

The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice – a collective of women led organizations across Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia – is dedicated to honoring the achievements of our ancestors by continuing their efforts to push our communities forward.

 The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI) promotes the first human rights agenda in the United States aimed at eradicating historical race, class, cultural, religious and gender barriers experienced by southern rural black women.

SRBWI Mission Statement

To nourish the internal capacity of women to take responsibility for their own lives, personally and externally

• To engage women in advocacy and policy initiatives that redirect local, state, and federal resources to help ensure women’s full participation and access to economic and social justice

• To engage women in an economic and community development agenda that includes workforce development

• To develop organizational capacity within the region to sustain this work

• To build linkages with women’s groups committed to economic and social justice.

We have established Human Rights Commissions in communities that are all too forgotten by mainstream America. We have active programs promoting Young Women’s Leadership and celebrating Cultural Heritage featuring our Southern Rural Black Women’s Hall of Fame inductees. We are Building Assets through Worker Ownership.

In isolation, each of these initiatives achieves important goals. But collectively, they represent a larger vision: a world where Southern Rural Black Women are recognized for the hard-working innovators, business people, mothers, community leaders, and activists that we are.