HomeWhat We DoOur Mission In ActionRacial Justice & Civil Rights
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Promoting equal protection and equal opportunity for people of color

YWCA’s commitment to racial justice and civil rights runs deep. Since the 1800s, Black and Native women have been providing leadership in YWCA’s movement and, because of the leadership of women of color, in 1946 YWCA began working for integration throughout the organization, adopting an “interracial charter” that established that “wherever there is injustice on the basis of race, whether in the community, the nation, or the world, our protest must be clear and our labor for its removal, vigorous, and steady.” That work culminated in the creation of YWCA’s One Imperative in 1970: To thrust our collective power towards the elimination of racism, wherever it exists, by any means necessary.

YWCA’s approach to racial justice goes beyond changing hearts and minds. We strive to transform communities, systems and public policies. We do this through supporting measures that promote equal protection and equal opportunity for people of color at the national, state and local levels. We also do this through our annual Stand Against Racism campaign and through our racial justice programs and services, which engage more than 140,000 people each year.

As a part of our global work with the World YWCA, we advocate for an end to discrimination against women in every sphere — economic, political and social — and support the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).