The Alliance for Boys and Men of Color

The Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC) is a network of more than 200 advocacy organizations and community leaders who come together to advance race and gender justice by expanding opportunity and transforming state and local policies that are failing boys and men of color, their families and communities. Since its founding eight years ago, ABMoC has passed more than 100 bills in the CA legislature and won policy change in countless cities and counties statewide including:

  • An end to decades of secrecy regarding police misconduct and use of force.
  • More than $30 million in funding to improve support systems for students in K-12 schools.
  • And end to the practice of suspensions and expulsions for "willful defiance" for all K-3 students in California and for all students in some of the state's largest school districts including Los Angeles and Oakland Unified School Districts.
  • Statewide Ban the Box policies.
  • New job-training programs for people returning home after incarceration, which has supported thousands of people in their re-entry.
  • CURYJ and Youth Justice Coalition, two ABMoC members and organizations led by formerly incarcerated and system impacted people, have led the fight against gang injunctions in California and are national leaders in ending the war on gangs. Their efforts have ended gang injunctions in communities across the state from Oakland to San Diego.
  • An end to the use of solitary confinement for young people incarcerated in California youth prisons and jails.

See our 2018-2019 California Legislative Wins.

As its work has expanded beyond California, partners nationwide have also achieved historic wins including:

  • Florida Alliance for Boys and Men of Color anchor organization, Second Chances Florida, led the 2018 campaign to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people living with a felony conviction.
  • In Louisiana, community advocates including our partner Friends and Families of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children helped to eliminate a Jim Crow Era law which allowed non-unanimous juries to convict someone of a felony.
  • Our Arizona anchor partner, Puente Human Rights, won a recent campaign to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement in Phoenix Unified School District.
  • Our members in Los Angeles, including Brothers, Sons, Selves, passed a "Student Bill of Rights" in LAUSD, the second largest school district in the nation.
  • In Texas, our partners Austin Justice Coalition established a new Office for Police Oversight in the city; and in Dallas Next Generation Action Network won new reforms to the Police Oversight Board. Our partners in San Antonio also recently won a campaign to create an Office for Black and Brown Unity to bridge and heal cultural divides.

For more information on the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, go to its website.