The Urban EpiCenter (the Epicenter) was founded in August of 2007 with the support of Keith Caldwell and Sekou Franklin, Ph.D. It is a multi-racial, grassroots organization in Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee.The term, EpiCenter, describes the focal point of a disturbance or activity. The Urban EpiCenter believes that community organizing and direct action for racial and economic justice should be the focal points of social and political activity in Nashville. Further we believe in a radical vision of democracy, which situates indigenous activists and poor and working-class people at the center (or EpiCenter) of grassroots initiatives.
Our Principles:
- We are dedicated to using community organizing and direct action to struggle for racial and economic justice
- We are dedicated to cultivating a grassroots contingent of indigenous organizers, mainly drawn from Nashville’s economically marginal communities and communities of color.
- We intend to serve as a resource space for urban families that seek to develop their leadership capacity, as well as acquire the requisite skills that are essential to civic engagement and living a healthy life
Our Goals:
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It is critical for national organizations, funders, and allies to invest in social justice groups in the South. This is particularly urgent considering the South’s conservative and paternalistic traditions, its right-to-work/anti-labor culture, its entrenched poverty, its legacy of racism, and the prevalence of electoral disenfranchisement schemes that target black voters.
- Our core initiative is a living wage campaign.
- Developing the leadership capacity of indigenous activists (and potential activists) is one of our main objectives.
- We will implement a voter education initiative that will complement our living wage campaign and on-going, voter mobilization/registration efforts during the presidential election season.
- In late 2008, we plan to create and host the “Ms. Ella Baker Achievement Awards,” which will highlight the work of indigenous activists who are underappreciated in Nashville’s grassroots initiatives and are invisible within the broader leadership circles that purport to fight for marginal communities.