Mission

The Racial Justice Coalition (RJC) is a broad-based alliance of individuals and organizations committed to addressing systemic racism and state-sanctioned violence against Black people and those most impacted by poverty, criminalization, and mass incarceration. Through grassroots-led organizing and community collaborations, the RJC seeks to achieve and sustain deep equity by building power to those historically underrepresented, dismantling policies and institutions that uphold racism, and reimagining a community where justice exists for all people.

We Believe:

  • We believe that our community must commit to reparations for Black people
  • We believe in divesting from traditional law enforcement in order to invest in the Black community 
  • We believe in radically reimagining public safety in the city of Asheville, Buncombe County and Western North Carolina 
  • We believe that the criminalization of Black people intersects with the inequities of many marginalized groups
  • We believe that movement and organizing work rooted in structural racism should be Black-led 
  • We believe that grassroots leadership is directly linked to building community 
  • We believe in centering those most impacted by systemic racism and oppression
  • We believe that undoing racism includes the long-haul work of shifting power and reallocating resources 
  • We believe in transformative and healing justice 
  • We believe in creating transformational relationships, not transactional
  • We believe that none of us are free, until all of us are free