We’re happy to feature this guest post by Justin Massa of MoveSmart.org:

Exploring the implications of new technologies for old-line civil rights organizations, E. Ethelbert Miller recently wondered in a Washington Post article, “What would happen if W.E.B. Du Bois or Marcus Garvey had a laptop?” Such ‘what if?’ reflections are commonplace – baseball fans constantly debate how Ruth would have hit on steroids or against modern pitching speeds. For this former community organizer, the most interesting reflection is, “How would new social media tools have affected Anti-Racist Action?”

In the late 90’s I co-founded a chapter of Anti-Racist Action (ARA) in Chicago. As part of a group of punk and hardcore kids who were concerned about organized racism showing up in our subculture it was a natural choice. Those were heady times for ARA; after a decade of slow but steady growth the number of chapters had exploded to nearly 130. The murders of Dan Shersty and Spit Newborn, two Las Vegas ARA members murdered execution-style in the desert by nazi skinheads, and the Illinois-Indiana racist killing spree of Ben Smith exactly one year later served us with a stark reminder of just what we were up against. Youth recruitment by white supremcists was increasing, becoming more effective, and funding the movement through the sale of white power music.

Just 7 years later ARA is but a shell of its former self. There are only a handful of active chapters and the once ubiquitous info tables at punk and hardcore shows are gone. I drifted away about 6 years ago, transitioning first to working full-time for a civil rights organization and then completely losing touch after becoming a public school teacher. While chapter leadership had used a listserve to effectively coordinate and strategize, the Internet was then more a tool for research than organizing. But I can’t help but wonder, with today’s tools would we have built Sprout widgets warning against racism and lobbied bands and record labels to include these on their websites? What strategies would we have developed to effectively confront racism on social networking sites? If our online presence – which was never very well organized or accessible – would have been better, would the organization still be as strong? How would Twitter and live streaming media have changed the ways we directly confronted organized racist events?

While my approach and focus has changed over the years, the values that working with ARA instilled in me still influence my work today – confronting racism head-on with a heavy dose of education and passion can be incredibly effective. What’s your favorite or most influential organization that’s either in decline or gone, and how might new social media tools have changed things for them?

Justin is a co-founder and the executive director of MoveSmart.org, a start-up organization that fosters residential integration through technology. By day he investigates complaints of housing discrimination for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.

-Filed in Ideas, People