Originally from Buffalo, New York, I moved to Asheville, NC, in July, 1996. My background has been in community organizing through a variety of nonprofits. My last paid position was as Community Fund Director for the United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County; I retired in the summer of 2016 after 17 years.

A gut morgn [a good morning]! My name is Sarah Biskowitz, and I work at the Jewish Women’s Archive in Boston. I manage the Rising Voices Fellowship, a writing and leadership program for high school students.

My name is Ryan Deitsch and I am a 24 year old Jewish American filmmaker, international human rights organizer and member of the Workers Circle who recently schlepped his way to New York City as part of my creative and Yiddish journeys.

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), known as “Mr. Civil Rights,” was the key architect behind the legal strategy that fought against state-sponsored segregation. He famously argued before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Marshall founded the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP. In 1967, he was named to the Supreme Court making him the first Black Justice.

My name is Ari and I am a junior at NYU Gallatin’s School of Individualized Study. My concentration in Gallatin is “Latin American Discard Studies.” My interests surround land use, indigenous rights and sovereignty, and waste systems with a geographic focus in Latin America. I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and went to school in a rural area where activism was never really embraced. I always had to travel to the city center to organize, volunteer, and work for nonprofits. When I first moved to New York City for school, I was hoping to find similar opportunities.

My name is Sara Maltzman and I live in San Diego, California. I am a devoted Workers Circle member; The Workers Circle is my spiritual, cultural, and political home.

I graduated high school in 1969 and moved from L.A. to Oregon. In Oregon, I actively supported the United Farm Workers; picketed with striking papermill workers; worked to end the Vietnam war, including marching in the San Francisco October and November 1969 Moratoriums; and protested the U.S. government’s targeting and murder of Black Panther Party members.

I’m Anshu Sharma and I volunteer with the Workers Circle by phone banking. I really appreciate the sense of community that develops at these phone banks as we all work together to increase voter participation in elections.

My name is Eve, and I’m a feminist activist, writer, and public speaker. For the past five years, I have worked in grassroots organizing on international, national, and local levels—based in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I grew up. My activism has always centered around women and gender minorities, specifically reproductive justice: from abortion rights to the advocacy for sexual/domestic violence survivors

This week, we are featuring an activist from the past. Reflecting on past activists allows us to engage with and learn from the Workers Circle’s rich history. The activists we’re spotlighting from history, like A. Philip Randolph, often pioneered advances in the causes we are committed to today

Louise Passick and the 1963 March on Washington

My name is Josi Riederer, and I work as Deputy Policy and Communications Director at the Center for Common Ground, a nonpartisan, Black-led voting rights organization founded to educate and empower under-represented voters in voter suppression states.