ACORN, Coming to a College Bookstore Near You

ACORN has had to deal with a lot of public criticism lately. Dale Rathke embezzled from them, every week we seem to see more former ACORN employees charged with voter registration fraud, and most recently Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe provided compelling evidence of ACORN employees engaging in criminal behavior.

Maybe ACORN deserves a chance to tell its side of the story. Wade Rathke published his book Citizen Wealth this summer setting forth his community organizing vision and history. Today Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO provided her take on the organization's recent problems. But it feels like something is missing -- We haven't heard the academic community weigh in yet. Not to worry, Robert Fisher, a Professor of Community Organizing at the University of Connecticut's School of Social Work is publishing The People Shall Rule: ACORN, Community Organizing, and the Struggle for Economic Justice next week. I may have to preorder a copy.

From the publisher's website:

With the election of a community organizer as president of the United States, the time is right to evaluate the current state of community organizing and the effectiveness of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Since 2002, ACORN has been dramatically expanding and raising its national profile; it has also been weathering controversy over its voter registration campaigns and an internal financial scandal.

The twelve chapters in this volume present the perspectives of insiders like founder Wade Rathke and leading outside practitioners and academics. The result is a thorough detailing of ACORN's founding and its changing strategies, including vivid accounts and analyses of its campaigns on the living wage, voter turnout, predatory lending, redlining, school reform, and community redevelopment, as well as a critical perspective on ACORN's place in the community organizing landscape.