Organizations - Civil Rights - California Dept. of Justice

The ADC web page notes that the non-partisan civil rights group is the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the U.S. ADC was founded in 1980 by former Sen. James Abourezk with chapters nationwide.

Fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry here and abroad, the Anti-Defamation League probes the roots of hatred against Jews and serves as a public resource for government media, law enforcement agencies and the public at large.

Based in San Francisco, ALC is the nation's oldest Asian Pacific American civil rights legal organization providing legal services, community education, and advocacy assistance to low-income people, with a focus on Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants and refugees. The ALC's multilingual staff offers services in the areas of civil rights, housing, employment, immigration and naturalization, and the rights of the elderly. Address: 720 Market Street, Suite 500. Phone: (415) 391-1655; Fax: (415) 391-0366.

California Association of Human Relations Organizations is a statewide organization of people and organizations that promotes full acceptance of all persons by conducting activities designed to protect basic human and civil rights, and by creating a climate of respect and inclusion through networks of collaborations that reduce community tension and build intergroup relationships.

The California Attorney General's Crime and Violence Prevention Center provides information, training, technical assistance and high-quality resources in the following areas: community policing, violence prevention, neighborhood and personal safety, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, family violence prevention, safe schools and youth gang prevention.

The mission of Educators for Social Responsibility is to make teaching social responsibility a core practice in education so that young people develop the convictions and skills needed to shape a safe, sustainable, democratic and just world.

Facing History and Ourselves is a national educational and professional development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.

HateWatch is a web-based educational resource and organization that combats the growing and evolving threat of online bigotry. HateWatch keeps an up-to-date catalog of hate groups that use the web to recruit and organize.

JACL was founded in 1929 to fight discrimination against people of Japanese ancestry. The organization advances it mission through programs of civil rights, education, leadership, advocacy and redress. It is the largest and one of the oldest Asian Pacific American organizations in the United States.

LEAP is a national, nonprofit, non-partisan community-based organization founded in 1982 by a cross section of Asian Pacific Americans. LEAP programs include improving cross-cultural and inter-ethnic collaboration and interaction, and increasing public understanding of Asian Pacific concerns and their impact on policy formulation and decision-making at local, regional and national levels.

MALDEF is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and promote the civil rights of the more than 29 million Latinos living in the United States.

LULAC works to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.

NAPALC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with nine major areas of focus: Affirmative Action, Anti-Asian Violence, Census 2000, Community Partners, Immigration, Language Rights, Naturalization, Voting Rights and Welfare Reform. The Consortium is affiliated with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City.

As the chief legal officers of the states, commonwealths and territories of the United States, the Attorneys General serve as counselors to state government agencies and legislatures, and as representatives of the public interest. Attorneys General occupy the intersection of law and public policy, dealing in diverse areas. This web site provides contact information about your Attorney General.

The principal objective of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is to ensure the policy, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States. The NAACP is committed to achievement through non-violence and relies upon the press, the petition, the ballot and the courts, and is persistent in the use of legal and moral persuasion even in the face of overt and violent racial hostility.

The National Council of La Raza is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1968 to reduce poverty and improve life opportunities for Hispanic Americans. NCLR conducts policy analysis and advocacy activities in civil rights.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force serves as the national resource center for grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender orgainzations that are facing a variety of battles at the state and local level.

The National Network of Violence Prevention Practitioners provides training and technical assistance to mobilize violence preventers in a national intersectoral movement to prevent youth violence and improve practice and relationships between practitioners, evaluators and researchers, and policymakers.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is a nonprofit, community-based organization headquartered in New York City, with 115 affiliates in 34 states and the District of Columbia that works to advance civil rights and social and economic equality for African Americans.

The mission of the National Youth Advisory Council is to advocate for and with young people who are gay, lesbian, or transgender in an effort to end discrimination against these youth and to ensure their physical and emotional well-being.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends. PFLAG provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is an organization that combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation. The center is internationally known for its tolerance education program, its legal victories against white supremacist groups, its tracking of hate groups and its sponsorship of the Civil Rights Memorial.

The Study Circles Resource Center is dedicated to advancing deliberative democracy and improving the quality of public life in the United States via helping communities organize study circles that give people opportunities to make a difference in their communities.