Be the Bridge

We are applying for The Elevate Prize because it lends us the opportunity to make a greater and more sustainable impact within the global community. The conversation about race goes beyond American borders and The Elevate Prize would allow us to scale this vision, expand our network and provide us the resources toward accomplishing our goals. Our goal within the next year is to equip parents with tools & resources to have conversations on race with their kids. And to equip middle, high school, and college students to have the language and confidence to initiate and engage conversations on race with their peers. The ultimate goal is to not begin this work as adults, but to foster an understanding about race in children, so that by the time they reach adulthood, they are equipped to engage in the work of justice and dismantle systems of oppression. Financial support from The Elevate Prize offers us an avenue to accomplish these goals. 

I am Latasha Morrison, a bridge-builder, reconciler and advocate for racial justice. In 2016, I founded Be the Bridge, a non-profit organization empowering people and culture toward racial healing, equity and reconciliation. We create tools and resources to help people become racially literate. Be the Bridge is in all 50 states and 6 countries across 4 continents, with over 2k community groups across the globe. 

I am a native of North Carolina, a resident of Atlanta, a lover of people and visionary for equity. My first book, Be the Bridge was released in October 2019 and is a New York Times Bestseller. In 2018, I was selected as a resident in Facebook’s Community Leadership Program and I currently serve on Facebook’s newly formed Anti-Racism Council. My vision for Be the Bridge is that people and organizations become aware of and respond to the racial brokenness and systemic injustice in our world. I want to see that people are no longer conditioned by a racialized society but grounded in truth, and all are equipped to flourish. My goal is for this work to impact the next generation because they are the ones who will carry this vision forward.

Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter, Breonna Taylor, Unite the Right rallies, kids in cages, Native land rights, George Floyd, anti-Asian violence, and the US capitol under siege. Cries of pain and anguish being met with indifference all show a deep racial division in our nation and world.

I saw how in a community, people could become racial reconcilers. For Be the Bridge, racial reconciliation is the process of a multi-racial cohort living in mutuality to pursue racial justice and heal the racial divide.

While the majority of Americans say race relations in America are getting worse, Be the Bridge is impacting tens of thousands of people daily through a wide variety of values-based and faith-based initiatives that empower toward change. We empower youth to bring racial reconciliation to their schools and universities. We also empower churches such as two in Massachusetts that are now one, unified church after their time with Be the Bridge showed they couldn’t possibly worship, divided along racial lines, any longer.

Despite the underfunding that Black woman-led organizations experience, Be the Bridge has captured the hearts and minds of a broad coalition of people and laid the foundation for a large, multi-racial community.

We are a team, led by me, a Black woman, consisting primarily of people on the margins, who show deep empathy, understanding, and experience on how to engage in the work of racial healing. We break this subject matter down in a way that the average person who has been educated in the American school system can understand. We take some of the complexities of systemic racism and make it possible for every person to engage in the work of racial healing. 

We begin by listening, then developing our empathy, then leveraging our position. We provide a roadmap for bridge-builders to unlearn racist narratives and beliefs and engage from a place of the truth. We offer resources that meet people where they are and accomplish our mission of empowering people and culture toward racial healing, equity, and reconciliation. White supremacy and systemic racism are so overwhelming that sometimes we get overcome by all there is to do and all the brokenness in the world. One of our strengths is that we help people start and then provide them a pathway toward the finish line. 

Be the Bridge serves those who are grieved by the racism in this country and want to make a change in themselves and their communities. We provide an onramp to the work of racial healing through our programs, curriculum, webinars and training. As a result, people have utilized these tools to engage in their communities by: advocating for policy change, participating on community school boards, advocating for reparations, creating films, writing books, hosting rallies, engaging their faith communities, hosting conversations at their schools, universities and workplaces. The impacts of BTB’s resources change a person’s home life, their community, and all the places they intersect. People are parenting differently - parents are seeking out our resources that tell the full truth of history, not revisionist history. For BIPOC, we provide a space where our voices are elevated and heard. We’ve created a community of people who are now able to name their racial trauma, which contributes toward a healthier life. Racism is bad for both the oppressed and those who buy into the myth of white supremacy.  BTB creates a space that leads towards mental, spiritual and emotional liberation for all people through an understanding and acknowledging of the truth.