Day Care Center Sit-In Favorite 

Low-income tenants at a public housing project in Rhode Island — many of them working mothers with young children — wanted an affordable day care center in their building. With petitions, pickets, and letters to the city council, they built up a steady drumbeat of pressure on the key decision maker, the local Housing and Urban Development (HUD) director. At a certain point they decided to escalate with direct action. They occupied the HUD director’s office.

They didn’t just take it over with signs and shouting or a simple sit-in, however. They brought their kids. They brought their kids’ toys. They brought song books, a diaper changing table, and a fold-out crib. And they marched right into the HUD director’s office and turned it into a day care center.

They stayed for the whole day, and invited the press. Eventually HUD caved, and a permanent day care center was set up in the housing project.

(Reposted from www.beautifultrouble.org)