Confronting Extremism in Rural Illinois with Heather McMeekan, Racial Justice Coalition
About this event:
Heather McMeekan is a civil rights activist in Macomb, Illinois, home of Western Illinois University. She’s a founding member of the Racial Justice Coalition of West Central Illinois, a grassroots collective organizing against structural racism, hate, and racism in over a dozen counties in Illinois. Members of the Racial Justice Coalition will join us with reports of extremism they are witnessing, confronting, documenting, and enduring in their counties. They’ll share some helpful wisdom for addressing different types of extremism with few allies and little political nor economic support. Repeatedly targeted and threatened for her activism in her community, she’ll discuss trauma-informed strategies for organizing for civil rights while enduring cyberstalking, libel, slander, intimidation, retaliation, and other disruption/silencing tactics. Join the Indivisible Rural Illinois group to hear Heather’s story, and her calls to action for us. Given that January 6 is also the 1 year anniversary of right-wing extremists pillaging the US Capitol, this is a very timely issue.
About Indivisible Rural Illinois:
The purpose of this group is to support each other as we go forward following the 2020 general election. It is clear that there is a sharp political divide between rural and suburban/urban Illinois. This has been true for a long time but there are many progressives living in rural areas.
Our project is two fold: One, strategizing on how we can find like minded progressives in our communities. And, second, how to work toward informing our neighbors about what a progressive agenda really is.
Our Working Mission: To amplify a progressive voice in rural Illinois and eventually flip rural Illinois from red to blue (although we acknowledge that this is a long-term goal).
Our Goals: To build our groups, to encourage new groups in our geographic areas, to work to correct the narrative of who “progressives” are and what they stand for, to define the relationship between grassroots organizations and local Democratic party organizations, and to work toward policy changes that will benefit our areas.
Stay connected with Indivisible Rural Illinois
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rural_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Google Group: https://bit.ly/rural-Illinois-
Email: [email protected]
