The Lowcountry Black & Latine Coalition, a group of Black and Spanish speaking community members, business leaders, and organizational allies, recently launched with the goal of developing resources, tools, and collaborative relationships to address systemic inequality in Black and Brown Lowcountry communities.
One of the group’s first initiatives is the #HOLACharleston campaign, which aims to get the Charleston municipal and county governments to translate all public documents, public service announcements, websites, court notices, practical and written tests, and all other information disseminated to the public, via the local government, into the Spanish language.
The coalition explained their reasoning on their website by saying:
“Many Spanish-speaking residents suffer from the same marginalization and neglect as African Americans and other oppressed communities in Charleston on the part of local government. There are also large concentrations of Spanish-speaking residents in communities like John's Island, North Charleston and Ladson, South Carolina, and they often live side by side with area Black residents. In Charleston County there are more Black and Hispanic Charleston residents living in poverty than white residents.
Access to important materials in the Spanish language could help grant access to employment, vocational training, grant resources, business compliance resources, school resources and more!”
Here’s how you can help the Lowcountry Black & Latine Coalition:
You can learn more on their website here.
