WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
Bristol After eleven years of organizing in England and Wales, ACORN was holding its first formal convention in Bristol. More than 200 people poured into the Malcolm X Community Center to start the meeting, as the officers opened the session mid-morning. People were excited, and so were we. I had arrived late the …
Bristol Over the years, I’ve been to Sicily a number of times. It’s a wonderful place in so many ways with a generous people, unmatched virtually anywhere in the world. Palermo, the Simeto Valley, Paterno, and another towns and cities across the island have all welcomed me, but nowhere more than Catania. Over …
Catania Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans on September 9, 1965, days after I had begun my senior year in high school. Those were the old days when school didn’t start until after Labor Day. The night the hurricane came, our whole family stayed, along with others, in the city’s central business district on the …