Sunrise Columbus

09/20/2024

Last night around midnight, a fire started burning at the Columbus Auto Shredder at 2181 Alum Creek Dr. The fire is still burning as of 12:30 pm. Take these calls to action! We have to keep each other safe when the state and city keep information from us.

Call the Ohio EPA Spill Hotline:
• 614-224-0946
Call Columbus Division of Fire:
• 614-221-2345
Protect your lungs:
• Wear a mask N95 or better while outside
• Stay inside or use air purification
• Tell your neighbors

06/18/2024

There are many reasons that COTA should offer free fares during this heat advisory. First and foremost is the fact that many residents, especially our unsheltered neighbors, do not have consistent access to cool spaces for relief from the heat. The unfolding climate crisis means more and more heatwaves will be hitting our city and it is imperative that ALL people living in Columbus have access to transportation and cooling resources while we face extreme heat this week. TELL COTA: WAIVE THE FARES.

11/06/2023

11/06/2023

Columbus: Take 20 seconds to call your Congressmembers for

11/01/2023

Take 10 seconds to call your Congressmembers for

03/07/2023

On the same Montgomery, AL bus system that Rosa Parks famously boycotted in 1955 sat Claudette Colvin nine months prior, refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, being arrested and sexually harassed by police as a result. Though Rosa Parks brought national attention to the matter, the case that overturned bus segregation laws in Alabama was Browder v. Gayle, where Colvin was one of four plaintiffs.

So why don’t we remember her? Or the other three women involved in this culture-changing case?

The NAACP and other prominent civil rights groups at the time were hesitant to center Colvin in the national conversation around integration. Rosa Parks, they argued, had “the right look.” Her skin was lighter than Colvin’s, she was older, presented herself in a more middle-class fashion, and unlike Colvin, she was not about to become a teen mother.

Colvin’s actions did however invite the support of her community and spark ideas for the protest that Parks would later carry out. Now, almost seven decades later, it’s time to unpack the colorism and respectability politics that prevented Colvin from becoming a household name in Black activism.

She inspired her community—from her 15-year-old vantage point—to stop praying for change and start acting for it. The night of her arrest, she was bailed out by her Reverend, celebrated by her neighbors, and protected by her father, who sat on the porch all night long with a shotgun in case the Klan decided to show up.

“Worried or not, I felt proud. I had stood up for our rights. I had done something a lot of adults hadn’t done,” she went on to say in her biography by Phillip Hoose.

As a youth-led movement that stands in solidarity with marginalized voices, we find it necessary to know and honor the story of Claudette Colvin. We know that Jim Crow is not as distant a past as black-and-white photos make it seem. Though the charges of violating segregation law and disorderly conduct were eventually dropped from her record, it wasn’t until 2021 that the charge of assaulting a police officer was finally expunged.

Sources: NPR, Americans Who Tell the Truth, History.com

02/28/2023

Free Fares benefit everyone! COTA knows this too, and we brought receipts! Check out our new OP-ED and learn more about our Transit4ALL campaign.

02/28/2023

A 1987 report called “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States” showed that race was the most important factor in deciding where toxic waste facilities would be established.

The Houston Riot of 1967, characterized more by police violence than civilian violence, started out as a peaceful student-led sit-in in front of the Holmes Road Dump in Houston, Texas, one of many landfills intentionally located in segregated majority Black neighborhoods. On May 8, 1967, students at Texas Southern University (TSU) sat in front of the entrance of the landfill in an attempt to get it shut down. Police arrested dozens of demonstrators. Protestors did not give up, returning to the landfill the next day, where more were arrested.

Tensions heightened, mostly on the part of police, when TSU students were falsely accused of threatening police. Police promptly shut down the university and blocked all roads leading to the school.

Trapped on campus, students threw rocks and bottles at police, and police responded with gunfire. They shot nearly 5,nto Lanier dorm and students inside returned fire in self-defense. Nearly 500 students were arrested, including students who had nothing to do with the fight, and one police officer was unalived.

We are inspired by these students, young people like ourselves, who had enough courage to fight for the air we breathe and the water we drink. We remember that police officers are not here to protect and serve; their primary goal is to protect property and capital. As the climate crisis worsens, with Black and brown communities experiencing the brunt of its effects, it is our job, with past environmental justice movements as our guide, to fight for a livable future.



*Image is fair use*

02/27/2023

Join us this Saturday, 11AM @ the Citadel, for a panel on Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism!

🕚 Saturday, March 4th at 11AM
📍The Citadel, 1761 Parsons Ave

Capitalism can not address the dire needs of combating and solving the climate catastrophe today, so what can we imagine and create as an alternative? How can we get there? Join us for our discussion with the PSL, Ohio Youth for Climate Justice, and the Sunrise Movement to chart the path forward beyond capitalism, to socialism!
PSL Columbus

02/22/2023

Posted • Donation drop-offs this week! There are 4 opportunities to donate supplies to the people of East Palestine. Starting Thursday and going through the weekend. Please be sure to check all 4 slides to get the correct information for each drop-off location.

DM if you have any questions.