Stephen Bradberry

Stephen Bradberry (born c. 1966, Chicago, Illinois

Biography Bradberry is a graduate of Dillard University who later worked as a public school teacher. He became active as a community organizer through the Umoja Committee of New Orleans.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Bradberry organized grassroots campaigns to support the participation of low-income families in the recovery process. Among other initiatives, he led a campaign for the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina, to be rebuilt as housing rather than turned into wetlands. In the same year, Bradberry and ACORN filed a successful lawsuit in federal court to force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to resume its housing payments to Katrina victims. As of 2011, he continued to lobby for federal assistance to the area, arguing that it still had not economically recovered six years later.

In 2005, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights recognized his efforts with its Human Rights Award. Bradberry was the first African American to win. Future U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the ceremony, saying of Bradberry, "Somewhere there's always been people like Steve Bradberry who believe that this isn't the way it's supposed to be ... People who believe that while evil and suffering will always exist, this is a country that has been fueled by small miracles and boundless dreams."

Following 2010's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Bradberry called for federal initiatives to partner with local communities affected by the spill.

Bradberry is executive director of the Alliance Institute, an organization that seeks "to provide individuals, families, and organizations with the skills and information necessary for them to fully participate in the decision making processes that affect them in their homes, neighborhoods and communities."