Still Changing After All of These Years

Celebrating forty years of outreach to America's marginalized, the Center for Community Change has helped carry on the dreams of America's most inspirational dreamers. Launched in 1968, following the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the center was a direct response to the war on poverty that was embarked upon during the 1960s.

The Movement Vision Lab has posted a well produced video that looks at the movement that launched the center, and the work CCC has done over the years to lift up American communities.

We're excited about the work that we've been able to do with the Center for Community Change, working to foster values that bring our communities together and open the doorway for opportunity to all Americans. Forty years after RFK was gunned down in front of the nation's eye, I find a great sense of satisfaction and hope in the cry for change that many have been calling for in recent times.

The spirit of Kennedy seems alive and well in the hearts of the many attendees I encountered last Friday at the Better Deal Conference in Washington. The conference set out the many issues that young Americans face; issues such as the fact that many find themselves achieving a lesser standard of living than that of their parents. Key issues such as housing raise some serious questions as to the obstacles that our Future Majority will face.

However, in spite of the mountain that has risen in front of young Americans since their parents traveled down these same roads, a great energy was felt throughout the crowd. Rev. Lennox Yearwood, from the Hip Hop Caucus said that the children born after 1968 are part of the "Dream Generation," those who have lived in the world that Dr. King had dreamed of when he imagined freedom ringing from the highest mountain.

with the National Mall only a few blocks from the Beter Deal conference, where Dr. King had cried out his dream, change seemed well masted in the horizon.

The seeds that the Center for Community Change has planted over the past forty years continue to grow, and bear the fruit of our future leaders. Their voice is strong, and when reflecting on the work CCC has done over the past forty years, I'm excited to think what the next forty will hold.