Civil rights advocate and founder of PolicyLink Angela Glover Blackwell spoke at the 2025 Inland Empire CommunityFoundation Policy & Philanthropy Summit on Wednesday, delivering a keynote address that called for radical imagination, civic accountability and what she described as “transformative solidarity” to build a truly inclusive multiracial democracy.
Introduced by IECF Board Chair Jesse Melgar, Blackwell’s speech exemplified the summit’s theme, “Common Ground for the Common Good,” with a sweeping narrative connecting personal history, systemic inequity and the urgent need for collective action.
Referencing her upbringing in segregated St. Louis, Blackwell emphasized the power of community as a foundation for civic engagement.
“Democracy depends on the vital civic structure, and the vital civic structure depends on people being in their communities, loving their communities and investing in their communities,” she said.
Throughout her remarks, Blackwell urged attendees, a mix of civic leaders, elected officials, educators and philanthropists, to challenge themselves and their institutions to go beyond symbolic support.
“We don’t just hold our elected officials accountable,” Blackwell said. “We have to hold ourselves accountable. We together must be mutually accountable.”
She described democracy as not simply a system of voting, but a mechanism “in service of human flourishing.”
That includes “housing, transportation, water, all the issues where people are the elements of human flourishing.”
Blackwell also stressed the importance of understanding history to avoid repeating mistakes.
“If we don’t understand the history of housing segregation, we’re not serving a place that allows us to go forward,” she said, citing how Reconstruction-era compromises led to the rollback of Black civil rights.
In a post-keynote media conversation, Blackwell responded to a question about the rising presence of vigilante groups targeting immigrant communities, calling it “terrorism.”
She encouraged communities to “join physically” in solidarity and hold officials accountable.
“We have a collective responsibility to our neighbors to make our elected officials do their job,” Blackwell said.
Addressing the emotional toll of current events, Blackwell concluded with a call to reclaim hope as a practice.
“Hope is a discipline,” Blackwell said. “If you collectively promise the discipline of hope, you will have the feeling of hope.”
The summit continued Thursday with panels on climate equity, education and philanthropy strategies.
