Black August— rooted in the organizing of incarcerated Black freedom fighters in the late 1970s —carries a tradition of remembrance, study, and recommitment to Black liberation. While the month historically carries personal and collective social commitments to fasting, studying, training, and fighting, as movement resources, celebrating Black August calls us to:
- Honor the leaders and organizations who have shaped Black freedom movements,
- Study their legacy of strategic organizing, and
- Apply their lessons to today’s struggles.
In that spirit, we invite you to study the work of Black queer and trans organizers from movements past. Navigating racism, transphobia, homophobia, and state violence at once, these leaders fought for community access to safety, health care, fair wages, bodily autonomy, and political power— laying the groundwork for a world where every single one of us can flourish and dream without limits. Across history, this transformative work has been foundational to the inclusive democracy we are striving toward daily.
- Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray developed legal arguments against segregation and sex discrimination that helped shape Brown v. Board of Education and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s later strategy for establishing constitutional protections against sex-based discrimination.
- Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Stonewall veteran and beloved ancestor, spent more than 50 years fighting for Black trans liberation, from caring for folks during the AIDS crisis to supporting unhoused and incarcerated trans folks, leading the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project, and creating House of gg, a sanctuary for trans people of color in the South.
- Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few Black lesbians publicly visible in the early gay rights movement, joined some of the nation’s earliest demonstrations for gay equality in the 60s, and urged organizers to confront discrimination more boldly through protests, political action, and coalition-building.
- William Dorsey Swann, organized some of the earliest documented drag balls in the 1880s and was the first known American to take legal action defending the queer community’s right to gather without police persecution.
- Lucy Hicks Anderson, a Black trans woman living during the Jim Crow era, made headlines in California in 1945 after authorities invalidated her marriage and prosecuted her for identifying as a woman. She defended her womanhood in court, becoming one of the earliest documented trans people to challenge the government’s power to define her gender.
The Lineage Continues
Today, Black queer and trans leaders are carrying forward in this lineage, building on generations of movement wisdom while developing new strategies for the challenges they are confronting. This includes grassroots groups like:
- Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative builds Black trans and queer political power in Atlanta by organizing toward community-led approaches to safety beyond policing and incarceration.
- The Mahogany Project operates Texas’s only Black trans-led, peer-led community center, combining real-time support like emergency housing navigation and food access with organizing and advocacy for trans and queer communities across the South.
- Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro builds Black political power through political education, leadership development, policy advocacy, and civic engagement, with Black queer and trans people at the center of shaping safer, more just communities.
- Save Our Sisters United combines mutual aid, peer support, direct services, and statewide advocacy to meet Black trans women’s immediate needs while building their collective power to change the systems creating those needs.
- Strategy Lab for Intersex Movements builds the power of Black intersex people and the broader movement through research, storytelling, political education, and organizing that advances bodily autonomy and challenges the systems shaping their lives.
- Griffin-Gracy Educational Retreat & Historical Center, founded by the late Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, creates healing spaces for trans people of color in the South while nurturing the next generation of trans leaders and organizers.
- Black Trans Media uses storytelling as an organizing strategy, equipping Black trans and gender-nonconforming people to challenge harmful narratives and build the power to tell their own stories through arts, media, education, and organizing.
Fund Black Movements This Month—and Every Month
Across generations, Black queer and trans leaders have built various frameworks for community safety, care, political power, and true freedom that continues to guide grassroots movements today. If we are truly committed to honoring their visions, we must sustain the leaders carrying this work forward today. For funders, that means putting abundant and long-term resources behind the organizations on the frontlines. Here are three ways funders can take action:
- Commit flexible, long-term funding to Black liberation movements: Give organizations and movement partners the resources to retain staff, strengthen programs, respond to emerging needs, and sustain their work over time.
- Join us in resourcing trans-led movements: Borealis is doubling our investments in trans-led and -serving work and we’re calling on funders to join us. Provide Black queer and trans-led organizations across the country with sustained, flexible support for the long haul by investing in our Fund for Trans Generations.
- Fund movements, not just issues: Lasting change takes more than funding one issue at a time. Freedom is inextricably linked to trans justice, housing, economic security, community safety and more. Partner with intermediaries like Borealis to understand these connections and invest in the broader movement ecosystem.
Learn more about the unique value of intermediaries, particularly in moments of heightened crisis.
At Borealis Philanthropy, we believe resourcing movements also means learning from the histories, strategies, and lived expertise that shape them. Through our work across Race, Gender, and Disability Justice, we resource grassroots leaders building the conditions for thriving democracy.