History of Sunrise Nashville
The Nashville hub of the Sunrise Movement was founded in early 2019. Our early focus was geared towards building broad support for the Green New Deal among both the public and elected officials. We encouraged both as an idea as well as the actual 14-page Green New Deal resolution that was introduced in Congress. This assisted our other goal of increasing the scale and urgency of the climate crisis within the political narrative. Both of these remain integral to our work today, but our focus on has transitioned to participating in grassroots programs and building support for legislation.
We held a community town hall featuring speakers from partner organizations including then City Councilman Freddie O’ Connell. Current mayor Freddie O’Connell presented, and we continued to build relationships with partner organizations both in and out of the climate space.
We also invested in the community of our hub. We held a retreat and training on a farm in Wartrace, TN. Trainers from the national organization co-facilitated trainings alongside out Nashville hub members.
At the end of September 2019, Sunrise held a series of regional summits across the US and decided to host their Southern regional summit in Nashville. Sunrise Nashville dedicated resources and hours towards the planning of the weekend training. Participants came from across the South came together to train and build community. The Monday following, we held a non-violent direct action which included a march followed by a sit-in. Nashville’s new mayor was about to have his first day in office, and climate was not discussed at all in the mayoral race. We wanted him to declare a climate emergency for Nashville. We marched from the capitol. We occupied his office most of the day. Soon after, the Sustainability Chief position was created for the Nashville City Government. Now, Nashville has an all-encompassing sustainability plan called CARP or Climate Adaption and Resiliency Plan.
Going into 2020, the presidential election was top of mind. Members of our hub protested and marched to the TN Democratic party office demanding as part of a larger campaign that state party officials vote to hold a Democratic Climate Debate. We held more educational trainings, town halls, and a variety of other events. We prioritized building good, real community.
When the tornado of April 2020 occurred, our hub played a part in organizing communities in disaster response. Of course, COVID then happened. We currently donate money to Palestine Hurra COllective.
Our numbers had been dwindling and for a large period of time it was really just 2-3 folks. As such, we began reaching out to local, allied organizations and Sunrise hubs in Knoxville and Chattanooga. The fostering of these relationships culminated in a state-wide youth summit for Climate Justice in the summer of 2022, funded through grants given to the Sunrise Nashville hub . The youth summit brought together numerous climate and social justice activists throughout the state and ended with a large-scale protest and sit-in at the construction site for Vanderbilt’s Owen building in relation to the Divest Dores movement.