#GeorgeFloyd solidarity protests have been held in over 135 different communities across PA already. Here's one way to think about the new geography they trace. I've mapped them on top of the @AmCommPro map. Notice how many are in Rural Middle America & Middle Suburb counties. 
Fully half the state's population lives in those two county types. But "rural middle America" doesn't match stereotypes (few folks work in agriculture; more are middle income than poor). And "middle suburbs" don't look like the upscale sites of privilege the term suburb may evoke
PA's more rural counties swung extra hard for Donald Trump in 2016. But because the Middle Suburbs are home to fully a third of the state's population, the swing there was critical. These are the state's former industrial heartlands: and onetime union & Democratic strongholds
These rust belt counties are often equated with "white working class" voters—which glosses over the internal diversity that has been critical to their evolution (underway for a lot longer than 8 ys). African American communities, & anti-Black racism have been there from the start
These are places where immigrant workers' labor struggle in the first decades of the century built union salaries that by the 70s allowed their grandsons to move out to new subdivisions & leave factory towns (& Black families who'd been excluded) behind
Since 2016 a largely women-led center-to-left grassroots surge has been remaking politics in the Philly collar counties ("urban suburbs" & "exurbs") & places w similar profiles statewide & nationwide americancommunities.org/grassroots-blo…
That's not the story of the Middle Suburbs. They haven't been transformed. But they haven't been static either. Political trends there are complicated: because these regions encompass multiple slices of the Democratic past & possible futures all at once americancommunities.org/in-pennsylvani…
I got so frustrated with analyses in which coalminers in diners (or the handful of men employed in fracking) were allowed to stand in for non-metro Pennsylvania's "working class" that I wrote a whole essay about lived political change these regions today democracyjournal.org/magazine/57/ru…
I wrote about some of the people making political change in ex-industrial former Dem strongholds. Turns out: lots of them are women. They work in daycare & cosmetology & libraries. & include young Black leaders rebuildng a party whose local hierarchy had been near uniformly white
Old factory towns in places like Beaver County still vote to the left of PA as a whole. But their populations have been shrinking for 40 ys. & the largely white subdivisions that surround them have been moving away fr the Democratc Party for nearly as long democracyjournal.org/magazine/57/ru…
That's the history & context you need to hold in your mind when you read that 75 people came out to demand justice for #GeorgeFloyd and insist that #BlackLivesMatter in Aliquippa PA on May 31. That's huge. timesonline.com/news/20200531/…
It's also the history that makes it sadly unsurprising that business owners in Ambridge, the traditionally much whiter town just across the bridge, called out a private militia to "stand guard" against them beavercountian.com/content/busine…
But also: Some teenagers in Ambridge chose to protest too. "Jaiden Cook, 16 said she wanted to protest on behalf of her friends of color at school who fear the police." Another: "I'm disappointed on the scare tactics. There's nothing in Ambridge to loot" ambridgeconnection.com/local-news/may…
That same weekend in Beaver Falls, more than 100 people came together in peaceful protest calling for justice for George Floyd & action against racism. And a car accelerated through the street at them. pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/06/02/bea…
A week later, *500 people* came together in Beaver Falls to protest for racial justice timesonline.com/news/20200607/…
And the following week another, at the county courthouse in Beaver itself. Bringing together a first-time organizer with faith leaders & some of the increasingly young & diverse local Dem party leaders and candidates ellwoodcityledger.com/news/20200611/…
Since 2016 new volunteer effort has been remaking the infrastructure of local center-to-left politics in places like Beaver County. That doesn't reverse demographic trends decades in the making. But it's opened doors for new leaders, suited to this moment
democracyjournal.org/magazine/57/ru…
democracyjournal.org/magazine/57/ru…
I've drawn examples from Beaver but similar process are underway across PA (& beyond) in regions that share this patterned past, & present. A #BLM protest coming up this wknd in Canonsburg, Washington County, led by local Black students? This is a big deal observer-reporter.com/news/localnews…
Vivid reporting on #BLM protest in Bethlehem, capturing both the anti-blackness that's a routine part of civic life in Rust Belt PA: and the role of recent years' organizing in shaping the leaders stepping forward in this moment keystoneedge.com/2020/06/18/pas…
Must-read interview from Erie, PA, another Rust Belt city where deindustrialization & disinvestment hit hard along racial lines. Listen as protests help create a new generation of young Black leaders, who are finding allies & building a movement as they go eriereader.com/article/erie-e…
