Student Activism Now Documented

Word Count: 687
Collection: Austin McCoy Papers, 2000-present; University of Michigan
Citations: “Interview: 10 questions for historian Austin McCoy” by Jackie Mantey, Dec. 5, 2016, https://jackiemantey.com/2016/12/05/interview-10-questions-for-historian-austin-mccoy/; “Exit Interview: Reflecting on a decade of organizing with Austin McCoy” by Riyah Basha, The Michigan Daily, April 10, 2018

“I don’t think one person should always be out front, and I believe that if you’re an organizer, part of what you’re doing as an organizer is facilitating. You help connect people, and you support the people who will be on the front lines.” – Austin McCoy, 2018  

“I have organized around issues of racial justice on campus, police killings (“Black Lives Matter”), and now against white supremacists, or whom some in the media have called the ‘alt-right’,” commented historian and activist Austin McCoy in a 2016 interview with author Jackie Mantey. No euphemisms. No platitudes. 

Austin refused to normalize the contemporary political winds that dominate our current landscape. Following numerous repressive political developments under the 2nd Trump Administration, including the April 2026 Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais—and the subsequent fundamental weakening of the protections enshrined in the Voting Rights of 1965—activists and advocates seek innovative ways to amplify the multigenerational efforts to protect political power for marginalized communities. Context matters. As a student activist who began his post-secondary studies at The Ohio State University, and later led mobilization and organizing efforts at the University of Michigan, Austin understood that social justice organizing doesn’t occur in a vacuum.

Previously described as a “hybrid adviser-activist”, he collaborated with hundreds of student organizers over the course of a decade starting in 2009 in Michigan. During this time, he engaged with organizations such as the Collective Against White Supremacy (CAWS) and United Coalition for Racial Justice to address a range of issues from political Gerrymandering, workers’ rights, gender bias, and racist policing in an effort to create more equitable institutions on campus and broader society. He led teach-ins, marches, and taught courses as a Mellon fellow that helped empower a new generation of organizers. 

Through Austin’s engagement with CAWS, the alliance organized a collective strike in the greater Lansing and Ann Arbor community where actions and events took place during the weekend of Feb. 17-20, 2017, where members of the public were encouraged to connect and build community without spending money in for-profit spaces. One such event was titled, “End Partisan Gerrymandering In Michigan: What Is The Problem? How Do We Solve It?” and organized in partnership with Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA) where activists had the opportunity to apply their mobilization efforts specifically within the context of systemic efforts to dilute the voting power of marginalized communities.   

The causes that Austin cared about were part of a long legacy spanning decades, informed by his predecessors, and the obstacles that he challenged were tied to the same forces that tried to suppress those who came before him: “I’m proud because of my family—my parents, my sister, my brothers, my grandparents—especially the struggles we have endured. Second, I’m proud of our extremely complex history. It seems cliché, but since I went to college and started studying history, I became more inspired. Black folks destabilized the slave system and overturned Jim Crow in the South and simultaneously challenged racism in the North and West.” He didn’t shy away from identifying white supremacy as the source of the political disenfranchisement facing Black and Brown communities and further commented, “White nationalists and white supremacists see Trump as an inspiration and an opportunity to mainstream their ideas and influence policy. Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened many of these folks to harass people like myself on Twitter and social media, and, even more disturbingly, to commit hate crimes. Donald Trump and white nationalists are a threat to what little democracy we may have.” Austin entered into his student organizing eyes wide open, contributing to meaningful change, and his approach offers valuable lessons for today’s organizers in an age saturated by political obfuscation and disinformation.

Austin’s work was always centered on providing guidance for and empowering the broader community of activists. In a 2018 interview with the Michigan Daily, Austin commented, “I don’t think one person should always be out front, and I believe that if you’re an organizer, part of what you’re doing as an organizer is facilitating. You help connect people, and you support the people who will be on the front lines.”

Given our current context in an era where the progress achieved through strides like the Voting Rights Act are being rolled back and dismantled, Austin’s model of organizing—direct and unapologetic—provides a clear and inspiring path for today’s activists. The past informs the present, and yesterday’s insights facilitate today’s victories. 

For more information, please visit the Austin McCoy Papers Collection at the University of Michigan Library.