‘I’m hoping people get inspired’: what can we learn from the godfather of community organizing?

American Agitators is a rousing new documentary about Fred Ross Sr, who spent more than 50 years fighting against divisive and destructive forces in the US “Community organizing” is a phrase that’s taken on an almost elastic quality in this fraught political moment. When it isn’t being wielded by right-leaning ideologues to slight grassroots politics (see the 2008 US presidential and 2025 New York City mayoral elections), it’s being embraced by progressives who believe that hopscotching among...

By Andrew Lawrence