Southern Echo is a leadership development, education, and training organization working to develop new, accountable grassroots leadership in African-American and low-wealth communities throughout MS and the southern region. Our primary objective is to enable communities to hold political, economic, education, and environmental decision makers accountable to the needs and interests of all citizens. We emphasize the importance of building strong community organizations, through effective community organizing work, as the essential means through which to advance the fundamental goal of empowering the community. We know that only when African Americans and low-wealth communities in MS and other parts of the southern region are educated and engaged can institutional racism be confronted and dismantled. We use an intergenerational approach and implement trainings and technical assistance programs to provide community members with the information, resources, and skills needed to become effective community organizers and advocates, and to assume leadership roles in their local communities.