Equal Justice USA

07/31/2025

This has been a year of hard news. Our last day of active operations will be August 15.

We are not alone. Just the other day, we received notice from another organization doing racial justice work that they were shutting their doors.

We are doing so with the same dignity, grace, and care with which we have carried out this mission for more than 30 years.

Read more about the factors behind Equal Justice USA's wind down and what we're proud to have accomplished: https://ejusa.org/hard-news/

07/16/2025

Please join us in tomorrow for the 2nd Annual Gun Violence Summit.

This is a community committed to building its own safety. We need everyone to show up.

07/10/2025

Please join us Friday, July 11, 12 ET, 9 PT, for a critical discussion on the harm the Trump cuts have had on community health and safety, by slashing violence prevention, mental health and substance use treatment, as well as Medicaid and other public insurance sources. The movement is fighting back to preserve the programs that save lives every day.
You can register here:
https://wrencollective.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10bbdc6942406535185ad8a74&id=fcdeb29981&e=2ed4c14229

Vera Institute of Justice
ACLU
The Wren Collective
Medical Justice Alliance

06/13/2025

A group caught in the fallout from federal budget cuts and a reduction in local funding says it may not make it past the fall.

Read more here:

Central Virginia Violence Interrupters, formerly known as the B.U.C.K. Squad, lost $250,000 due to the federal funding cuts on top of decreased Charlottesville City Funding. The outlook is dire, members of the leadership said.

06/12/2025

A new strategy of using Medicaid funding to support community-based trauma counseling to reduce violence has growing support at the state level, but the Republican budget bill that passed the house would cut more than $800 billion in Medicaid funding over the next 10 years — and most likely close the door on this essential tool.

Read more:

The GOP budget’s cuts to Medicaid threaten to decimate 59 trauma recovery centers in 15 states.

06/06/2025

Sit down and listen to the incomparable Josie Alexander, senior Louisiana strategist at Equal Justice USA, explaining how the Department of Justice's funding cuts are harming violence prevention efforts:

Today on Louisiana Considered, we learn how grant cuts at the Department of Justice could impact violence prevention programs in Louisiana. We also hear why sediment, essential to rebuilding the Mississippi River’s coastline, is getting lost in the Gulf. Plus, a law professor tells us how Tulane U...

06/05/2025

Trans people deserve dignity in all aspects of life, especially while incarcerated. Despite being disproportionately targeted by the prison system, trans people regularly have to rely on themselves for support. Trans rights advocates like Paige Mahogany Parks of T.A.P Transgender Awareness Project are one of many Black trans women fighting for the rights of ALL...and Black trans women deserve our support right back.

When asked what healing looks like in the face of violence, discrimination, and erasure by laws, Paige invites all to engage in an important call to action:

“Healing means to me that society will accept us more. We need to be more visible than we are because we exist and we have existed for many, many, many years. And healing means bringing us all together, you know? Bringing the community together as one for trans people to thrive.”

Read the full blog at the link in our bio: Trans people deserve dignity in all aspects of life, especially while incarcerated. Despite being disproportionately targeted by the prison system, trans people regularly have to rely on themselves to create organizations to provide support for incarcerated people. Trans rights advocates like Paige Mahogany Parks are one of the many Black trans women fighting for the rights of ALL, and they deserve our support right back.

When asked what healing looks like in the face of violence, discrimination, and erasure by laws, Paige invites all to engage in an important call to action:

“Healing means to me that society will accept us more. We need to be more visible than we are because we exist and we have existed for many, many, many years. And healing means bringing us all together, you know? Bringing the community together as one for trans people to thrive.”

Read the full blog here: https://ejusa.org/dont-forget-about-incarcerated-black-trans-women/

06/03/2025

Five years post-George Floyd, Jamila Hodge of Equal Justice USA says federal cuts to community public safety efforts will cost Black lives.

06/03/2025

After years working in traditional victim services, co-founders Eva Lessinger and Amanda Tonkovich recognized a critical gap in the system—the lack of real, structured support for those who cause harm, many of whom have experienced harm themselves—and launched Beyond Harm to fill it.

Read more about this life-changing work: https://ejusa.org/building-support-survivors-need/

06/03/2025

The Black Feminist Future gathering offers workshops, plenaries, and performances designed to address systemic issues.

05/30/2025

A federal resolution for reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent has been introduced this month.

"Reparations are a proposal to level the playing field, but the only way we could ever have a level playing field is by remedying the harms that have been done by the system." -Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)

Read more about the fight: https://thehill.com/homenews/race-politics/5302622-democrats-reintroduce-reparations-resolution/

05/27/2025

It's extremely clear that there wasn't much thought behind the Department of Justice's cutting of federal grants. Now groups on the ground are trying to pick up the pieces.

Hundreds of public safety grants cut, worth $500 million, funded initiatives like drug treatment and gun violence prevention programs.