For 30 years, Housing Up has provided housing and supportive services to homeless and low-income persons in the District of Columbia so they can transform their lives. The vast majority of those we serve and most of our staff are African-Americans. Our success depends on the shared conviction that we each can make a difference in overcoming the challenges and enduring structural racism that stand in the way of accomplishing our mission.

George Floyd’s murder this past week echoes the deaths of so many others and is agonizingly familiar. Though we may be tempted to throw our hands up in frustration, helplessness and rage, we should not – we cannot – lose hope that each us can make a difference this time. One of the most hopeful phrases to emerge from the tragedy is “Walk with Us,” chanted by a group of protesters in Flint, Michigan to the county sheriff, who responded by putting down his baton and saying, “Let’s go, let’s go. Where do you want to walk? We’ll walk all night.”

All of us must walk, figuratively and literally, with each other and with those seeking justice in America, and we will.

Take Action

Courtesy of DC Action for Children, below are several actions you can take to educate yourself, have productive conversations about dismantling racism, and help to change the status quo.

If you want to take local action: Vote  |  Black Lives Matter DC  |  Testify to the DC Council about the Metropolitan Police Department

If you want to learn: How to become an anti-racist reading list

If you want to talk to your kids: Children’s books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance

If you want to donate: Black Lives Matter DC, Black Visions Collective (Minneapolis), Reclaim the Block (Minneapolis),