Mission:
To represent the interests of low-income and working-class Americans.
Founded:
In 1970, by a coalition of leaders with backgrounds in union activism and civil rights work.
Demographics:
ACORN is organized at the neighborhood level--400,000 households belonging to 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 American cities. Local residents meet regularly to discuss and organize on issues impacting their lives.
Supporters Say:
ACORN is arguably the most effective organization operating today on the traditional neighborhood-based community organizing model, and one of the very few organizations specifically dedicated to the interests of all low-income and working-class Americans.
Critics Say:
In advance of the 2008 national elections, ACORN staff and volunteers organized one of the largest voter registration drives in U.S. history--1.3 million new voters, most from low-income communities, were registered. Unfortunately, a handful of staffers or volunteers registered obviously false ballots in an effort to get compensation or credit for registering a higher number of voters than they actually had.
I Say:
The criticism of ACORN, part of a broader 2008 Republican polemic against community organizers, represents an attempt to challenge the increased participation of low-income and minority voters (who tend to vote Democratic) and should not be taken seriously. ACORN is a fine organization, but--as is true of all real grassroots organizations--its leadership can't control the behavior of individual members.
