Through custom workshops, presentations, and other tailored professional learning, we help educational institutions and mission-driven organizations involved in housing, social justice, and neighborhood development drive systemic change for their team and the people they serve.
With our free, open-source educational resources, we help teachers lead conversations on social justice and racial disparity, so that students can learn how to make a positive difference in their communities.
Founded by enslavers in 1803, Rochester became home to generations of rights activists, from Austin Steward and Thomas James to Constance Mitchell and Dr. Walter Cooper.
Buffalo has a long history of citizens fighting for equal rights, led by figures like William Wells Brown and Rev. Jesse Edward Nash.
Syracuse was home to important abolitionist Jermain Loguen and CORE leader George Wiley.
Jamestown was home to generations of human rights advocates, including William and Sarah Storum and Vivian and Lula Taylor.
In Cattaraugus County, human rights advocacy was spearheaded by influential people such as Seneca leader Red Jacket and abolitionist James Brooks.
Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming counties were home to many black and white people who worked together to help freedom-seekers and to abolish enslavement.
As an agricultural community, Wayne County took a different path to civil rights history. Its location on Lake Ontario was a central hub to those fighting for migrant worker rights such as Perry B. Lee and Samuel Cuyler.
Ontario County was built on the enslavement of 100+ people, later home to formerly enslaved leaders like Lloyd Colbert and antislavery voices like Henry Johnson.
The Corning-Elmira area was always home to diverse communities, from Delaware nation members who welcomed freedom-seekers, to abolitionist John Jones and civil rights leaders Charles and Odessa McGrady.
Ithaca and Cortland have a legacy of human rights advocacy carried by figures like abolitionist George Johnson and civil rights leader James Gibbs.
Abolitionists Johnson Jones and Stephen Hand, and civil rights leaders Beccye and Claude Fawcett, played a large role in furthering human rights in Binghamton.
White landowners in Ulster County enslaved thousands of Black people and even formed a pro-slavery voting group. But other Ulster County residents played a major role in helping end enslavement.
Westchester County has long been home to human rights advocates, from 19th-century abolitionists to civil rights activist Errold Collymore.
Sullivan County was home to 19th-century abolitionists and the founders of Lucky Lake Estates in Tusten, one of the few 20th-century resorts available to Black Americans.
Our mission is to empower communities to engage with their local history of civil rights through inquiry, equity and civic action.