Rashad Robinson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1979 (age 45–46) |
| Education | Marymount University (BA) |
| Occupation | Former President of Color of Change |
| Organization | Color of Change |
| Movement | Civil rights |
| Board member of | Hazen Foundation |
Rashad Robinson is an American civil rights leader. He was the president of Color of Change until 2024. He has served as a board member of RaceForward, [1] Demos, [2] State Voices, [3] and the Hazen Foundation. [4] He currently sits on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. [5]
After graduating from Marymount University, [6] Robinson held leadership roles at GLAAD, [7] the Right to Vote Campaign, [8] [9] and FairVote. [10]
While at GLAAD, Robinson served as Senior Director of Media Programs, leading the organization's advocacy and major media campaigns. [7] He led dozens of campaigns pursuing criminal justice, voting rights, racial equity, gay rights and economic reform. [11]
In 2011, Rashad Robinson became the president of Color of Change, [11] [12] an advocacy organization founded after Hurricane Katrina with the purpose of assisting black communities in America.
During Robinson's tenure as president, Color Of Change grew by one million members and expanded to four offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Oakland, California. [6]
Robinson organized many of the organization's initiatives, including a campaign to pull funding from the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Black Tech Agenda, which works to create racial justice tech policies and prevent algorithm discrimination. [13] [14] Color Of Change helped protect the principle of net neutrality by pushing the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service. [15] The organization's Winning Justice campaign pushed prosecutors to reduce incarceration, end the use of money bail, and change sentencing schemes under which hundreds of thousands of Black people are imprisoned in the US. [16] The group has also persuaded businesses, including Mastercard and PayPal, to stop accepting payments from white nationalist groups, [17] to refrain from sitting on President Trump's Business Council. Color Of Change is credited with working with Silicon Valley companies, including Airbnb, Google and Facebook, to improve diversity inside their companies and address policies that harm Black users. [18]
In 2020, Robinson launched the advertiser boycott of Meta Platforms and worked on police reform campaigns that resulted in assisting 8 million people. [19] [20] That June, Lady Gaga gave him access to her Instagram account in order to discuss racial justice, in honor of Juneteenth. [11]
In September 2024, Robinson resigned as president after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Color Of Change violated federal labor law. [21]
Robinson currently sits on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. [5]
From 2010 to 2014, Robinson was selected as one of "The Root 100," a list of emerging and influential African Americans under the age of 45. [22] [23] [24]
Robinson regularly appears in the media, including NPR, [25] MSNBC, [26] CNN, PBS, and BET. He has a monthly column in the US edition of The Guardian . [27] His editorials have been published by The New York Times , [28] Huffington Post , [29] The Washington Post , and USA Today .
In March 2015, Ebony magazine called Robinson one of several "breakthrough leaders who have stepped up and are moving forward in the perpetual fight for justice." [30] In May 2015, Huffington Post included Robinson in a series highlighting "some of the people and issues that will shape the world in the next decade." [31] The same month, Robinson received an honorary doctoral degree from St. Mary's College of Maryland. [32]
On September 25, 2020, Robinson was named as one of the 25 members of the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", an independent monitoring group over Facebook. [33]
Robinson grew up in Riverhead, Long Island, and graduated from Riverhead High School in 1997. [6] [34] He began practicing activism as a high school student when he led a protest against a local convenience store that barred students from entering the store during their lunch break. [35] [36] He also became involved with the NAACP while in high school. [34]
Robinson attended Marymount University where he obtained a bachelor's degree in political science. [6] [37]
Robinson lives in New York City. [36]