By IEHP Foundation
November 18, 2024
When we think of the civil rights movement, we often picture locations like Selma, Alabama, the agricultural towns of Central California, or the streets of major cities such as New York or Washington, D.C. However, it is important to recognize that the Inland Empire has a rich and complex civil rights movement that continues to grow and thrive today.
The local nonprofit, Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California (CRIISC), is dedicated to preserving the region’s civil rights history while inspiring the next generation of social justice leaders.
CRIISC, located in downtown Riverside, opened in 2022. However, the idea was decades in the making. As explained by CRIISC Executive Director Sabrina Gonzalez, cofounders Rose Mayes and Lalit Acharya first thought of the vision in 2006 and developed it as a nonprofit in 2013. Ever since then, much work has been done to bring the cofounders’ vision to fruition.
