Director's Corner: Celebrating Black Women’s Leadership at EBCLC

Dear Friends,

As we transition from Black History Month to Women’s History Month, EBCLC offers Black Women’s History Week as an opportunity to honor the lives, strengths and stories of Black women. We celebrate our clients, board members, attorneys, legal workers and students whose courage is evident in our community victories. I hope you’ll join us in celebrating the Black women in EBCLC’s community.   

I am honored to be serving in this role in the legacy of my two Black women predecessors, Tirien Steinbach and Bernida Reagan. Centering the health and dignity of Black women was core to their founding and forming of EBCLC. I know that it is because of their leadership that I am able to rise in this moment and meet the incredible challenges that COVID-19 has wrought on EBCLC’s clients.   

This is also why I am excited to join fellow Black women Executive Directors and close EBCLC friends, Rachel Johnson-Farias and Savala Nolan Trepczynski on Facebook Live for “Trust Black Women? A Conversation on Black Woman-Centered Movement Lawyering a Year into COVID-19.” On March 16th, we will discuss what a year of Shelter in Place has taught us about our practices, our clients and ourselves. We will also posit that investing in Black women is the best way to undermine the structural racism in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. I hope you’ll join us at this unique event and invite others in your networks.  

Finally, I want to celebrate our Women of Color-Centered Equity Platform, which we launched in January. This platform reflects EBCLC’s core values and articulates a clear path forward. We are just getting started and are grateful for your partnership as we implement this vision.    

Onward,



Zoë Polk 

Executive Director 

East Bay Community Law Center 

 

 

P.S. Last week, I had the chance to speak to members of the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative on Anti-Black Racism and Housing in America: Where We've Been, What's Next. You can catch my presentation here.