Marisa Chappell

Chappell will work on a book that explores how the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), once the nation’s largest social justice organization, organized low- and moderate-income Americans to win political power locally and nationally. Using archival materials, Congressional records, press coverage, and interviews with former ACORN staff and members, Chappell will examine how ACORN’s membership and campaigns—as well as sustained political efforts to discredit the organization—illuminate the trajectory of working-class politics over the last half-century.