From Glenn Harris, President of Center for Social Inclusion:

It is with great excitement that I announce that Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) and Race Forward are uniting as one organization. We are uniting to align, strengthen, and multiply our efforts towards racial justice. I will serve as President of this new organization, which will be named Race Forward.

On behalf of CSI, I express my deep appreciation to all of you who have supported CSI over the years. I assure you that the legacy of CSI—built by co-founders Maya Wiley and Jocelyn Sargent, board members, and staff, both past and present—will be preserved and will persist in the vision, values, and strategies of the new Race Forward.

Why are we uniting as one organization?

Over the years, CSI and Race Forward have enjoyed a close partnership and a shared commitment to advancing racial equity. In this moment, I deeply believe that our organizations are stronger together than we are apart.

Right now our country needs deep transformation across many institutions to achieve racial equity—ranging from civil society, cultural institutions, and local government. With avowed White Supremacists and segregationists at the highest levels of government, as well as coordinated attacks on the very institutions on which we all have relied, the need to build a multiracial movement for racial justice is urgent. We are acting on this urgency by coming together as one organization, with the combined experience, expertise, wisdom, and talent to support this movement.

Given the political moment, I believe that we cannot afford to work in our siloes. By uniting as one organization, we will scale our collective work in a way that catalyzes the deep transformation necessary—across multiple institutions and sectors—to achieve racial justice in this country.

I express my deep appreciation to Rinku Sen, who has been a dear friend for many years. After having served 11 years as Executive Director of Race Forward and Publisher of Colorlines, Rinku will be transitioning into a new role as Senior Strategist at the new Race Forward. I thank her for her deep, visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to our communities. I look forward to her future contributions to the racial justice movement.

For the time-being, existing CSI and Race Forward programs will continue in their current forms. In the next few months, our unified teams will begin a strategic integration process to determine how to shape our programs and how to leverage our collective strengths to better serve the racial justice movement.  

I am excited for this new chapter, and I look forward to working with you all.

I invite you to read our press release, donate to support our new organization, and remain connected with us as we take our next steps as a unified organization.

In love and solidarity,

Glenn Harris