Racial & Economic Justice

We advocate for the rights of students in California to educational equity. The Education Equity team’s foremost priority is to ensure that all students receive an excellent education, particularly Black, Indigenous, and other students, including disabled students, who have traditionally been marginalized and under-resourced.

We recognize that the educational system in the U.S. was built on a foundation of white supremacy, attempted cultural genocide, and racial capitalism (e.g., redlining, occupational discrimination/segregation, wage theft). We center the demands of movements led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color to reimagine, redesign, and reinvest in a radically different education system where Black, Indigenous, Latine, other students of color, and disabled students are authentically supported; their experiences, culture and history are reflected; and their needs are prioritized.Read more about our education equity work.

The ACLU has long fought to protect and defend the civil and human rights of people experiencing homelessness. We challenge government and police practices that criminalize unhoused people as well as practices that make it harder to secure and maintain needed housing, employment, and benefits. Economic security is necessary for the full exercise of the civil liberties that the ACLU of Northern California promotes and defends. Poverty and housing insecurity significantly interfere with one’s ability to exercise core civil rights and civil liberties. We know that these issues disproportionately impact Black and other communities of color. Lack of capital should not be a barrier to security, dignity, autonomy, and full participation in the democratic process.

For much of the country’s history, formal and explicit racial restrictions, embedded in law, prevented people of color from accessing the mainstays of economic life, including employment and homeownership. Other programs and policies, such as excessive fines and fees to fund government operations, continue to disproportionately affect all low-income people, particularly Black and other people of color. The ACLU of Northern California seeks to eliminate discrimination based on poverty and other arbitrary classifications. We also seek to proactively support the design of government measures that will allow more Californians to achieve a life of equal dignity, with an ability to participate fully in civic and social life and to exercise the core constitutional rights that we have long defended. The ACLU uses litigation and other advocacy to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure access to economic opportunity.

The ACLU of Northern California acknowledges that all land in what is currently known as the United States, including the areas where the ACLU of Northern California works, is unceded Indigenous territory. This land has been stewarded by Indigenous people since time immemorial. We recognize the urgent need to promote and advance the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples. Through our Indigenous-centered legal, policy, advocacy, and organizing work, we support and advance tribal sovereignty, the rights of Indigenous peoples, and the dismantling of colonial systems of oppression. We strive to follow the lead of Indigenous peoples, communities, organizations, and movements through community-directed political, social, cultural, policy, and educational processes. We endeavor to honor and, when possible, integrate Indigenous worldviews and values into our approaches and strategies.

Visit the online hub for our Indigenous Justice work to learn more.