[Fedora]

“When They Call You a Terrorist”: The Life of Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors

The Labor Community Strategy Center is my first political home. It’s where I would be a part of what it’s famous for, which is the Bus Riders Union.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Started by an old friend of mine, Eric Mann.

PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS: Yes, Eric Mann. That’s my mentor.

[Fedora]

The Bus Riders Union (BRU) (also called Sindicato de Pasajeros (SDP) and 버스 승객 조합 (버승조)) is a United States civil rights social movement organization established in Los Angeles, California in 1994. Led by a planning committee, its multilingual membership is drawn from the predominantly low-income, African-American, Latino and Asian mass transit ridership of Los Angeles County. The BRU's central focus has been policies of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) that it identifies as racial discrimination. The BRU attracted international attention when it successfully sued LACMTA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in 1994 and its example has inspired similar efforts to organize mass transit passengers. . .The Bus Rider's Union is a project of the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) that began as an outgrowth of the LCSC's Labor/Community Watchdog environmental justice campaign against air pollution in the L.A. Port area. The BRU was founded by the LSCS's director, Eric Mann who is also co-chair of the union along with Barbara Lott-Holland.[7][8] The LCSC began organizing bus riders in 1992 and, as it expanded its tactics from grassroots organizing to include legal action, it built "across geographic and ethnic lines" to bring together "a multiethnic, progressive coalition."[9][8] In 1996, it filed a civil rights lawsuit in association with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, alleging that the LACMTA was using federal funds for public transit in a discriminatory manner.: Bus Riders Union (Los Angeles)

Mann has been identified as instrumental in shaping the environmental justice movement in the U.S.[4] He is also founder of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, California and has been its director for 25 years. In addition, Mann is founder and co-chair of the Bus Riders Union, identifying what is now called “transit racism” and resulting in a precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit, Labor Community Strategy Center et al. v. MTA.: Eric Mann