Community Responses to Hate: Sample Materials for Your Town

Files:

Here you will find materials used by other communities to stand up to hate in their town. You may download these materials and use them as inspiration in your own communities.

Charleston and Wheeling, West Virginia

In 2010, Fred Phelps' Westboro hate group announced it would picket Catholic and Jewish institutions in the two towns, a local university, and a mine where more than a dozen miners had recently lost their lives. The community launched "West Virginia: No Place for Hate [4]," a multi-pronged action campaign that was featured on NIOT.org [5].

The statement below was published as a full-page ad in two Charleston newspapers in the spring of 2010. The heart image appeared alongside the statement as a tear-out poster, which community members were encouraged to display on their windows that week, as a response to messages of hate and representation of the "power of love in [the] community." Meanwhile, the West Virginia "No Place for Hate" poster was designed, printed and distributed by the WV Chamber of Commerce.

Stay tuned for more sample materials.

The Not In Our Town Action Kit [6] compiles and shares resources from communities standing up to hate and intolerance. In addition to the sample materials above, you will find sample posters, pledges and proclamations; guidance on hosting a screening in your town; video viewing and discussion guides; and materials from anti-hate campaigns on K-12 and college campuses.

Action kit:

Not In Our Town Posters and Flyers [7]

NIOT:

community response [8]

West Virginia [9]

tolerance [10]

pledge [11]

stop the hate [12]

equal rights [13]

Chamber of Commerce [14]

Type of tool:

PDF [15]