Ronald Chisom's North Star--
An Organizer Creates Other Organizers
by Frederick B. Hudson
He was told when he finished high school in 1959 that he was not college material but he has trained over 90,000 people all over the world to train others for their transformation.
What is his secret? Ronald Chisom says it's accountability.
Although he never had college training, the native of New Orleans was prodded every step of his career by those who he swore to help to improve himself. He has created an international organization which has spanned the globe from South Africa to Japan in its quest to seek equity for all.
Photo courtesy of the author
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Executive Director of The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, the native of New Orleans feels that if an individual has been able to develop a radio show he or she needs to stay in close contact with the community members who wielded the influence to air the show.
Chisom learned his lessons from many mentors-Jesse Gray, Head of the National Tenants Rights Organization, from trainers in an organization called the Midwest Academy in Chicago which trains community organizers, and from the panoply of community, legal and church groups he has encouraged to move each member from membership to leadership.
His journey began in the 60's at Louisiana State University medical school where he rose from a custodial position to medical research assistant in a few years. Although he enjoyed his work, when he looked around the labs and classrooms he saw very few blacks who were either students or staff members. He found a kindred spirit in a staff member who was part of the administrative staff and they began to voice their dissent in various offices of the institution. Although he never was fired for his organizing activities, in 1969 he felt his destiny lay elsewhere, so he quit his job to begin organizing in Treme, a section of the French Quarter in New Orleans.
Most of his first outreach was to drug addicts in the area who complained of constant police harassment. The "streetwise" drug addicts were able to help Chisom and his associates gain access to areas which other organizers might have difficulty visiting. Soon Chisom's efforts expanded to include tenant organizing. A formal organization was formed-the Treme Community Improvement Association.
The organization waged attacks against slum landlords, using rent strikes and rallies as organizational tools. Chisom benefited from the tutorials available from Jesse Gray, founder of the United Tenants Organization. Gray had family residing in New Orleans and when he visited them he helped the Treme group.
After some years of struggle and progress, Chisom was told by some of his members: "Ron, we love you, but after watching you, we feel you need some more training." It was a hard pill to swallow for the committed activist, but he put the people's needs before his ego and enrolled in a two week program at the Midwest Academy in Chicago and learned strategic development skills.
A few months later, members of the Treme group told him again, "you need more training. Again Chisom swallowed his pride and went to courses taught by the famed Saul Alinsky who founded the Industrial Areas Foundation (I.A.F.). This is a network of community-based organizations, whose direct descendants are "teaching residents of more than 50 poor communities from Brooklyn to Los Angeles how to engage in effective political activity.
Although he benefited from the I.A.F. training, Chisom realized that all the trainers in the Alinsky organization and the Midwest Academy were white and never discussed race. They avoided the topic in fact.
Chisom stresses: "some people come out of school and think they have got it going on but you can teach somebody these skills and if they haven't dealt with their racism, they can become a skillful racist. They are being trained from a white model but you have to understand history, culture, and accountability. lack perspective is not included.
When it comes to evaluation, they use the same kind of evaluation-which is counting and measuring-- when you work in communities of color you must hear people's stories as well.
With this keynote as a building block, The People's Institute was founded in 1980 by Chisom and Jim Dunn of Yellow Springs, Ohio. The People's Institute was created to develop more analytical, culturally-rooted and effective community organizers.
Over the past 24 years, The People's Institute Undoing Racism™/ Community Organizing process has impacted the lives of nearly 100,000 people both nationally and internationally. Through this process, it has built a national collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers who do their work with an understanding of history, culture, and the impact of racism on communities. These anti-racist organizers build leadership in and account to the constituencies where they are organizing.
Chisom tells his trainers and trainees that they must avoid the issue syndrome which many community organizations fall prey to. People say lets choose an issue; they organize around that issue; then six months later they choose another issue. "If the issue doesn't strengthen your community, you shouldn't work on it."
Chisom further warns veteran and incipient organizers: "many of us who are activists will get on somebody's board and in 6 months they deactivate us. After a while you are raising your hand to Roberts Rules of Order-- they will take the activist out of you! You have to have some of your own culture in the organization.
"You keep the activist in by keeping your roots in the community. You need that community voice behind you. Organizers organize people. You motivate and give people a sense of their own power. Some people who call themselves activists never have the community with them. You take the people with you from membership to leadership. You have to stress equity not just diversity. Equity means equal treatment and equal pay --if they are qualified for the job they get it.
When I'm traveling the work gets done. You need a strong network. If the need is there, I can call 500 people in New Orleans and call 500 people in other cities. Some people are just running their mouths. We call those people gatekeepers. If you don't let the people in the process, you have a reactionary approach. You can't keep the people in a waiting room."
Today, The People's Institute is recognized as one of the foremost anti-racism training and organizing institutions in the nation. In a 2002 Aspen Institute survey of eleven top racial justice organizations, five credited The People's Institute with having the most effective anti-racist analysis.
An average of 10-15 groups per month participate in The People's Institute Undoing Racism™/Community Organizing process. Through dialogue, reflection, role-playing, strategic planning, and presentations, this intensive process challenges participants to analyze the structures of power and privilege that hinder social equity and prepares them to be effective organizers for justice. The multiracial team of organizer/trainers includes more than 30 men and women whose experience in anti-racist organizing includes years with civil, labor and welfare rights struggles, educational and health reform movements, and grassroots community organizing.
For further information, please go to www.thepeoplesinstitute.org. Not bad for a man who wasn't considered college material!
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