ASJ History

In late May 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, a few families and their kids were trying to figure out how to take some action. At that time, the Denver protests were the subject of violent police repression and therefore not safe for kids. Therefore on Monday, June 1st, they decided to protest in solidarity with Black Lives Matter in front of Arvada City Hall.

On the second day, a few people drove by while heading to the post office and saw the protest. They immediately ran home to grab American flags and signs and came back to join. This created a snowball effect. By the end of the week there were 50 people there. The protests lasted daily for two months and continue today on the first Monday of each month.

At the protests, people connected that had never met before and created a grassroots community that held multiple discussions about how to move forward with action. One member of the protest previously created a Facebook site as an outlet for Arvadans (originally titled Arvadans for Equality and Social Advocacy). They saw the protest and joined, and then these efforts were aligned for both a physical and social media presence.

Several of the protest attendees formed a Steering Team as the social media presence quickly jumped to several hundred members. The Steering Team reached out individually to all the original members and received feedback about what type of action they wanted to see for the Arvadan community. This turned into an active social justice group with 3 Action Teams; Policing, Outreach, and Education. Each of these teams hold regular meetings and ASJ hosts general monthly meetings (second Thursdays of the month).