Craig Robbins
Craig Robbins worked on staff for ACORN for almost 25 years. He started in 1986 in Chicago, after which he organized in Kansas City and then became Head Organizer in St. Louis for 11 years. In 2001, he moved to Philadelphia, where he worked as Head Organizer. Later he became Regional Director for the Northeast and National Campaign Director. In this interview, Robbins shares about first joining ACORN, after seeing a newspaper ad, and the feeling that he’d broken through after signing up his first three members. He discusses feeling excited watching members grow into leaders, and the empowerment that comes from people exercising their power. He talks about having racial diversity on staff as a core struggle throughout ACORN’s history, mentioning that he started out making $500/month without health insurance and how working at that pay rate required a safety net. He discusses a number of campaigns, including ACORN’s banking/CRA organizing and bringing bankers to the table to negotiate lending agreements that would have significant material results for their membership. He speaks of ACORN’s model as cutting edge, sophisticated and effective, combining on-the-ground action with the ability to move legislation on Capitol Hill, as well as the advantage of being able to quickly coordinate in cities across the country. He talks about ACORN’s senior leadership as “the bishops,” and how he believed in expanding ACORN into an organization where you didn’t need “uber Gods” in order to be successful (and the controversy of that expansion). He also covers his experience of the end of ACORN, being at the 2008 Detroit Convention where Wade Rathke was asked to resign, and the loss he felt after that.