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History of the Movement: This type of community organizing began in Chicago in 1938. Saul Alinsky created the "Back of the Yards Community Council". The organization operated in the shadow of Chicago’s stock yards. The community was beset with poverty, political corruption, gangs, disease, deteriorating housing and inadequate schools; but most of all it was beset with a sense of powerlessness. The organization successfully engaged people to change the conditions of the community. Its motto was, "We shall decide our own destiny." And to a large extent and for some time, they did just that. Many organizations were created utilizing the model of the Back of the Yards Council. Unfortunately most of those organizations have dissolved, become stagnant, parochial and marginalized; have evolved into social service, advocacy, or economic development corporations; or have become the fiefdoms of political hacks. The original mission of empowerment and expansion of democracy has, all too frequently, been lost. To insure the promise of community organizing, the Gamaliel Foundation was born. History of the Gamaliel Foundation: The Gamaliel Foundation was originally established in 1968 to support the Contract Buyers League, an African American organization fighting to protect homeowners on Chicago’s Westside who had been discriminated against by banks and saving and loan institutions. In l986, the Foundation was reorganized as an organizing institute providing resources to community leaders in the efforts to build and maintain powerful organizations in low income communities. The Gamaliel Foundation has grown from three to more than forty-five affiliates in seventeen states and in three provinces of South Africa. The Name: The first Christians were a threat to the establishment of Israel. The Sanhedrin met to decide the fate of the leaders of the new religion. Some wanted to kill them. But the wise man Gamaliel stood up and said "refrain from these men, for if this work be of men, it will come to naught, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." Acts 5: 38, 39. We work in the hope and the confidence that this work is of God. Paul understood himself to be a disciple of Gamaliel. (Acts 22:3) Saul Alinsky made all of his organizers read the letters of Paul because he regarded his namesake to be one of the greatest organizers of all time. The Gamaliel Foundation mentors organizers. |
This article requires a subscription. When did NRO start that?
Another one? Good Grief!
We need to see The One’s passport records. How much time has he spent in Manchuria?
Given Obama’s background, I don’t see how you could conceive of him as anything but a radical left-winger.
BUMP FOR TRUTH!!