Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing [Paperback]

Linda Stout (Author), Howard Zinn (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0807043095 | ISBN-13: 978-0807043097 | Edition: 1st

Again and again social change movements--on matter s from the environment to women's rights--have been run by middle-class leaders. But in order to make real progress toward economic and social change, poor people--those most affected by social problems--must be the ones to speak up and lead.

It can be done. Linda Stout herself grew up in poverty in rural North Carolina and went on to found one of this country's most successful and innovative grassroots organizations, the Piedmont Peace Project. Working for peace, jobs, health care, and basic social services in North Carolina's conservative Piedmont region, the project has attracted national attention for its success in drawing leadership from within a working-class community, actively encouraging diversity, and empowering people who have never had a voice in policy decisions to speak up for their own interests. The Piedmont Peace Project demonstrates that new ways of organizing can really work.

Bridging the Class Divide tells the inspiring story of Linda Stout's life as the daughter of a tenant farmer, as a self-taught activist, and as a leader in the progressive movement. It also gives practical lessons on how to build real working relationships between people of different income levels, races, and genders. This book will inspire and enrich anyone who works for change in our society.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Where literature on community organizing circulates, the often contrarian views of the working-class founder of North Carolina's Piedmont Peace Project (PPP) are likely to draw attention. Stout, now executive director of the Peace Development Fund in Massachusetts, had often found herself--as a native southern woman with a high-school education in the early '80s peace movement--closed out of functions like public speaking. PPP, formed by and for working-class and poor people (predominantly women and African Americans), has developed its own organizing model based on seven principles: focusing on social change; working across lines of race and class; including indigenous leaders and organizers; encouraging diversity through ongoing outreach and training; linking local and national issues; developing and maintaining personal empowerment while working for organizational power; and staying flexible to adapt to participants' needs and leadership styles. Stout describes the "invisible walls" --of language, assumed knowledge, logistics, meeting format and structure--that middle-class organizations often unintentionally erect and suggests mutually respectful ways citizens can work together for social and economic justice. Mary Carroll

About the Author

Linda Stout grew up in poverty in rural North Carolina and went on to found one of this country's most successful and innovative grassroots organizations, the Piedmont Peace Project. Working for peace, jobs, health care, and basic social services in North Carolina's conservative Piedmont region, the project has attracted national attention for its success in drawing leadership from within a working-class community, actively encouraging diversity, and empowering people who have never had a voice in policy decisions to speak up for their own interests

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; 1st edition (February 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807043095
• ISBN-13: 978-0807043097
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Stout, director of Spirit in Action, has been a grassroots organizer and activist for three decades. A thirteenth-generation Quaker born to a tenant-farming family, Linda founded a successful grassroots organization in 1984, in a conservative region of North Carolina.

PPP worked successfully to forge extraordinary alliances across race and class lines and won major public policy changes. Linda's awards include a Public Policy Fellowship from Harvard University, Honorary Doctorate for Allegheny College, and the Freedom Fighter Award of the Equal Rights Congress. Her story was featured in Stud Terkel's book, "Hope Dies Last" and she is the author of Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing, published by Beacon Press.

Her second book, Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together to Create a Just and Sustainable World (available for pre-order at reduced price) will be released from Berrett Koehler (May 2011).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How ordinary people can make a difference., November 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing (Paperback)

This is a moving personal story that shows how ordinary people can make a difference. It exemplifies the statement of Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Told in simple language, the story has profound insight into the way social class limits opportunities of working class people and how social class prejudice hurts. There are many practical insights about how people can organize effectively to make a better world.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring book, April 20, 2008

By 

Gail Leondar Wright - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing (Paperback)

Bridging the Class Divide is one of the best books in the world on organizing for social change. By telling her own story, Linda Stout makes it clear what the obstacles are for low-income people to work for a better world, and what the obstacles are for forming mixed-class coalitions, and how those obstacles can be overcome.
This is not just my own individual opinion. I assigned this book as one of 8 books in a graduate course for environmental advocates, and at the end of the course I asked the students what learnings they would carry with them into their working life the most, and 7 out of 11 students named Linda Stout's key points.
-- Betsy Leondar-Wright

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable!, June 8, 2008

By 

Lynn Holbein "artist and activist" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing (Paperback)

Activists will find this book invaluable. Rev. William Sloan Coffin said it all: "Class may well prove a nut even tougher to crack than racism. With a wealth of wisdom, Linda Stout shows how to organize progressive movements that are genuinely inclusive. Grassroots organizers especially will be in her debt, which is where I have happily been for years."