On Resistance and Resilience: Alexis McKenney on the Power of Black Organizing in Washington, D.C.
Activist and organizer, Alexis McKenney. Photo courtesy of Alexis McKenney.
By Jaimee A. Swift
Alexis McKenney (she/her/hers) believes knowing, centering, and acknowledging the long and rich legacy of Black activism in Washington, D.C.––particularly Black women’s activism––should be central to organizers’ theory and praxis.
Activist Alexis McKenney is deeply invested in centering and uplifting the power, resistance, and resilience of the Black community in Washington, D.C. A native of Durham, North Carolina, McKenney is a community organizer at Bread for the City, an advocacy organization dedicated “to helping D.C. residents living with low income to develop their power to determine the future of their own communities.” At Bread for the City, her activism and work center on public housing and combatting housing insecurity in the District.
Prior to Bread for the City, McKenney was one of the founding members of HU Resist, a student-organization at Howard University grounded in anti-gentrification efforts, community outreach, and political education, who in 2018, led a nine day occupation at Howard University. Working and organizing on several social justice issues and fronts, McKenney’s organizing theory and praxis is most certainly rooted in learning, knowing, and centering the history, voices, activism, and livelihoods of those who have come before her and those who she is currently working, organizing, and struggling with in the fight for Black liberation in D.C. and beyond.
McKenney spoke with me about her experiences organizing with HU Resist; what she has learned about organizing in D.C.; why Black Women Radicals in D.C. should be centered; and what pioneering activist, organizer, and educator, Ella Baker, has taught her.
With your experiences with HU Resist and your other organizing experiences, what have you learned about organizing in the DC area?
Alexis McKenney (AK): “I have learned that organizing in D.C. is so much different than college organizing and I really kind of leaned into that experience since graduating in 2018. In college, everyone is on campus, you see most folks in classes, and most people don’t have full time jobs, so it is a very different experience. Also, people are coming from all different parts of the country and around the world and our job is to literally learn, so it is a very different organizing playground in college than it is organizing as an adult with other adults who have full time jobs and who have kids. Just that in itself––coming into adulthood as an organizer––has been interesting especially in D.C., which is a city that is so robust with organizers and organizing history and culture. I think what I have learned is the importance of acknowledging people and acknowledging the history and culture that is specific to D.C., and making sure that is central to any kind of organizing space I am in, especially in public housing. Most of the people I am working with have been here for years and have worked here for generations. It is important to acknowledge Black D.C. within social justice work. That has been the biggest lesson.”
“I think what I have learned is the importance of acknowledging people and acknowledging the history and culture that is specific to D.C., and making sure that is central to any kind of organizing space I am in, especially in public housing. Most of the people I am working with have been here for years and have worked here for generations. It is important to acknowledge Black D.C. within social justice work.”
With heightened gentrification and displacement, what are some of the barriers that impact Black organizing in D.C.? What initiatives and campaigns have you worked with or are currently working on to combat gentrification and its impact on the Black community in D.C.?
AK: “I think the biggest thing––especially working at a non-profit with its main mission being direct services––is a lot of the folks I am seeing everyday, organizing with, and trying to really invite into this work are people who are just struggling to survive. I think gentrification in D.C. has pushed a lot of people––a lot of Black people who’ve been here––to an economic point where the main objective and the main focus is survival and literally to be able to stay in the city they have called home most of their lives. A lot of the folks we are working with are also in crisis and are facing housing instability, food insecurity, and are facing a real lack of resources. So organizing with people in crisis is really hard. It is hard to get folks who work two shifts to come out to a community meeting. It is hard to get folks who are just trying to put food on their table or get their kids to school or pick them up from school to commit to a month-long political education course. That is the main way gentrification has impacted the general economic, geo-political status of the city and has been a barrier to organizing and long-term progress within social justice in D.C.”
“I think gentrification in D.C. has pushed a lot of people––a lot of Black people who’ve been here––to an economic point where the main objective and the main focus is survival and literally to be able to stay in the city they have called home most of their lives. A lot of the folks we are working with are also in crisis and are facing housing instability, food insecurity, and are facing a real lack of resources.”
“My work is centered around fighting against that, specifically in public housing. Public housing, which is the main and large source of subsidized housing for low-income to no-income folks in the city, is being threatened right now. They want to essentially demolish over 2,000 units of public housing in D.C. That is the main way people will definitely be forcibly removed. Part of that fight is preserving that housing, creating opportunity for political education, and bridging what is going on here in D.C. to what is going on in Durham, and what is also going on in Flint because we know that economic and environmental racism is very much apart of public housing in D.C. It is important to draw those connections and building solidarity is so important, too.”
Another oppressive aspect of heightened gentrification and displacement is the attempted erasure of people and communities who were once there and still are there. We know ‘Chocolate City’, despite gentrification, still has a very deep and strong Black radical organizing movement. Being in D.C. for the while you have been now, what have you learned about the beautiful long history of Black organizing in the District? What are ways we can preserve it, acknowledge, and center the history in all we do?
AK: “I think so much of the history of Black organizing in D.C. has been lost or at least it has not been spoken enough about in the spaces I frequent. So much of the past organizing, what I love about it was it was so family-based and community-based. A lot of the organizing that came and actually made history came through public housing. People like Miss Kimi Gray and Miss Denise Stanley who came from Kenilworth Courts, which is public housing in D.C., they created the first––and I think even until this day––the only public housing agreement between residents and the government that allowed them the right to return after their development was demolished.”
Life and Career of Kimi Gray interview of Ms. Kimi Gray on C-SPAN. January 11, 1990. Gray was the chairperson of the Kenilworth-Parkside Residential Management Corporation, a public housing project in the northeast quadrant of the city which is now managed by its tenants. Ms. Gray was instrumental in getting the city to turn over control of the project to its resident council.
“The legacy and history of Black women specifically in D.C., who were mothers, who were working class, and who lived in public housing communities, and who made history, I would love it if those stories were told more. I think it would add more richness and context to and how we organize today. The only way I know about their stories is because I work with Miss Kimi’s granddaughter, Sequenly Gray, who is an amazing, phenomenal Black woman organizer in D.C., who talks about her grandmother often and how she represented D.C. and Black D.C. public housing residents internationally, and traveled to Africa and Europe through her work. This is part of the stuff that gets lost if you don’t incorporate those folks who are from the city and whose parents and grandparents are from the city as well.”
Newspaper clip of Ms. Denise Stanley from East of the River Magazine April 2016. Credit: Capital Community News.
“The legacy and history of Black women specifically in D.C., who were mothers, who were working class, and who lived in public housing communities, and who made history, I would love it if those stories were told more.”
You were one of the lead organizers in HU Resist, where Howard University students took over the administration building in order to address structural and institutional issues such as housing, financial aid, and more on campus. Where did your passion for organizing come from at that time and what did you learn?
AK: “I learned so much. That was what really called me into organizing work in general. I think one of the main things I learned specifically while we were creating our second set of demands, campaigning, and trying to get more people involved in our movement, is that any social movement, any mass movement has to be based on the needs and the desires of the masses. We learned that through trial and error. We had a first set of demands that flopped because we did not ask anyone their opinions before creating them and before putting them out. Regardless of how righteous or flawless we thought our politics may have been, we didn’t ask people before creating those demands. That was a big lesson for us on how to engage in organizing and radical work. The second set of demands we did a survey and we tried to get ten percent of the undergraduate population to put their input into our movement and our organizing. At the time, I didn’t know it but that was a part of the political analysis and logic of Ella Baker, who believed that ‘strong people don’t need strong leaders’ or that ordinary communities of people are just as able and brilliant as whoever we see on CNN. So that was a big lesson.”
“I think one of the main things I learned specifically while we were creating our second set of demands, campaigning, and trying to get more people involved in our movement, is that any social movement, any mass movement has to be based on the needs and the desires of the masses.”
“Also, during our occupation, when we were in the administration building for nine days in 2018, I learned just how powerful cooptation can be especially when we were exhausted, we had been in there for nine days, and we did not come in with a great plan. We were holding it together and there were beautiful things happening there––communities emerged from that direct action––but we were ready to leave. The Board of Trustees took advantage of that and seemingly conceded to all of our demands. However, I found myself in a position to convince the 500 students who had joined us in the A-building [the administration building] we had won. That was a big lesson: as someone who is in leadership in any kind of movement, it is never a good thing when you have to convince your people you have won. There is always the possibility that your movement will be co-opted. I also learned that you must be really clear on what is negotiable and what is non-negotiable. I walked away from that understanding that power is in the people and when you concede that power, it is really hard for you to get it back. Once we left the A-building, it was really hard to do anything and push any of our demands that we thought we had won.”
You spoke about Ella Baker. Who are some other Black Women Radicals you admire?
AK: “Ella Baker, yes. She is definitely one of my chosen movement ancestors. I read her autobiography in the beginning of 2019. It changed my life, honestly. Just the way she was able to do and communicate what we call radical and revolutionary concepts with people who probably did not identify themselves like that––Black folks from down South who probably were not Communists or Socialists but understand the importance of cooperative economics. Her ability to move people and communities and inspire students but still give them space to grow their own movements such as SNCC, was so important. Her true belief in value and love in relationships and everyday people and the roles they play in our movement is really an inspiration to me. Definitely Angela Davis just because she has been in it for so long, you know? And just the contribution of her work, her theory, and her internationalism such as with Palestine and shedding light to the ways on how our struggles are very connected. So I always appreciate her existence. Also, Fannie Lou Hamer because she was a Black woman from the Deep South who risked her life everyday for the liberation of her people.”
What does a Black Woman Radical mean to you?
AK: “A Black Woman Radical is a Black woman with a leftist politic and praxis who lives out and practices her politic in every aspect of her life. From her church to her family to her job to her community, I think Black Women Radicals understand the political is personal and the personal is political because we have no choice but to acknowledge that because our bodies are seen as very political, our skin, our hair, our lips––everything about us is political. So we understand that and it requires us to move with that knowledge in every place we inhabit.”
You can follow Alexis McKenney on Twitter @lexi_kenney.