Linda Burnham has been an organizer and a human rights activist for her entire life. In 1990, she founded the Women of Color Resource Center, which organizes and trains women of color to work on social justice issues. In 1995, Linda led a delegation to the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing and a delegation in 1999 to the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. She has worked locally and nationally with coalitions that oppose war, as well as groups that protect civil liberties and immigrant rights.
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Linda comes from a family of social activists. Her father was a student leader at the City College in New York and became the organizational leader of the Southern Negro Youth Congress and founding editor of the Harlem-based newspaper Freedom. Linda's mother has been active in housing and community issues in Brooklyn for more than 50 years. As a teenager, Linda began organizing communities of color in New York City to support the Ban the Bomb protest and to oppose the Vietnam War. She attended Reed College in Oregon and was a founding member of the Third World Women's Alliance and the Alliance Against Women's Oppression–both major forces for social change in the 1970s. She has written extensively on the topics of women's rights and African American politics. As the first editor of Race File (a publication that compiles and analyzes articles highlighting key trends in communities of color), and an editor of Crossroads and Colorlines, she promotes progressive dialogue on issues of race, class, gender, and their intersections. She founded the Women of Color Resource Center to address the roles that race, gender, class, and their intersections play in women's social justice and economic well-being. Center programs such as Women's Education in the Global Economy and the Women's Literacy Collaborative develop organizational and strategic planning skills and provide technical assistance. Linda also works on projects that monitor trends affecting social welfare policies in the USA. Linda has written many newsletter, magazine, and journal articles, essays, and reports, including "Women's Education in the Global Economy", "Women, Raise Your Voices", "The Wellspring of Black Feminist Theory", "Racism in US Welfare Policy", and "Sexual Domination in Uniform: An American Value", an analysis of Abu Ghraib prison atrocities.
Third World Women's Alliance Alliance Against Women's Oppression Women of Color Resource Center