ACORN’s History

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was founded by Wade Rathke in 1970 in Little Rock, Arkansas in the United States. 

By the 2000s, ACORN was a 500,000 member organization in over 100 cities in the U.S. In 2002, we formed ACORN International to spread the ACORN model to other countries, often where our U.S. members had emigrated from.

In the late 2000s, coinciding with the election of Barack Obama as the U.S. president, ACORN was the target of baseless right-wing attacks. While ACORN in the United States was damaged by these attacks, ACORN International continued to grow. ACORN members achieved many victories around the world. Currently, we have ACORN affiliates on 5 continents and 15 countries, with over 250,000 members total.

The idea of ACORN is simple: That when individuals join together in community groups and unions, we are more powerful. 

When those community groups and unions join together into large organizations covering cities, countries, industries, and continents, we can have the power to change whatever we want to.

Check out “Recent Wins” for more of what our model has accomplished.

Over the last 50 years, ACORN has:

Won for residents – homeowners and tenants

• Forced banks in the U.S. to sign agreements for billions of dollars of home mortgage loans that made 7 million families home owners.
• Increased income for lower waged workers in the U.S. through tax programs and outreach for tax credits.
• Won major rent reductions for tenants in Rome and housing retrofits in France.
• Won more than $150,000,000 in landlord improvements for tenants in Toronto, Canada  with a campaign for landlord licensing.

Won for workers

• Raised wages through more than 100 successful “living wage” initiatives in the U.S. This included winning minimum wage increases in several states. The result was billions of dollars in raises to more than 10 million lower waged workers.
• Won Canada’s first living wage bylaw in New Westminster in British Columbia with a starting wage of over $16 per hour.
• Organized coalitions to stop corporations (like Tesco and Walmart) in India. Won protections for 20 million workers involved in small retail operations. 
• Organized unions of informal workers including auto rickshaw drivers, domestic workers, hawkers, and waste pickers in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi.

Won democratic rights

• Registered 5 million low-income voters in the U.S. and elected tons of members to government positions.

Won for the low- and moderate-income

• Won reforms to stop payday lending abuses in British Columbia, Ontario, and other provinces in Canada.
• Won thousands of community improvements in 38 U.S. states and 100 U.S. cities where ACORN chapters were located.
• Won a cap on the cost of money transfers from new Canadians back to their home countries. This was part of the larger ACORN International Remittance Justice Campaign.

Won basic rights

• Won construction of schools, parks, roads, and stairways in San Juan Lurigancho, the mega-informal settlement near Lima.
• Won reform of the bursary system in Korogocho mega-slum in Nairobi, Kenya so that children’s fees for secondary school would be paid.
• Stopped water privatization schemes in many Peruvian cities. 
• Winning land for informal communities in La Matanza; Argentina; south Quito, Ecuador; and Lima, Peru.

ACORN VIDEO ARCHIVE

Gingrich School Lunch Protest 1995

In a bold and unforgettable protest, ACORN activists disrupted a high-profile speech by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich in response to his “Contract with America” and proposed cuts to the federal school lunch program. As Gingrich dined with political elites in a grand ballroom, ACORN members snuck in through the kitchen, carrying lunch trays scrawled with protest slogans. While attendees ate filet mignon, activists marched through the room chanting, declaring that children should not go hungry while the powerful feasted. The action sparked chaos—one protester even had their hand stabbed with a fork—and ended in a dramatic chase through D.C. as activists followed Gingrich’s motorcade. Emotional but determined, this action marked a turning point for ACORN’s national political visibility and deepened their resolve to confront policies that harmed low-income families.

ACORN New York Squatting Campaign

In the mid-1980s, ACORN led a bold squatting campaign in East New York, Brooklyn, to pressure the city into expanding access to housing for low-income families. With hundreds of city-owned buildings left abandoned and rotting, and official programs like the homesteading lottery and Nehemiah Plan excluding the poorest residents, ACORN members and allies took direct action: they moved into vacant buildings and began rehabilitating them themselves—without city approval.

Squatters, many of whom had unsuccessfully applied through city programs or couldn’t afford skyrocketing rents, rebuilt these homes with their own labor and community support. Their goal wasn’t charity—they wanted a chance to own these homes through a fair, accessible process. ACORN supported them with legal, organizing, and material aid, forming work teams and advocating for a broader homesteading program.

Despite pushback and threats of eviction, the campaign drew widespread attention to the city’s failure to house its most vulnerable. Ultimately, ACORN’s pressure worked. In 1985, the city agreed to turn over 60 previously abandoned houses—including those rehabilitated by squatters—and fund $2 million in low-interest loans. A cooperative led by ACORN and other local groups would oversee the program and ensure continued support for homesteaders.

This campaign became a landmark victory in the fight for housing justice, proving that organized poor and working-class communities could challenge neglect and win lasting change.

ACORN Philadelphia Squatting Campaign

In early 1980s Philadelphia, where 40,000 houses sat abandoned while 20,000 people needed homes, residents—particularly poor and working-class families—took matters into their own hands.

They became squatters, openly occupying empty homes, fixing them up, and demanding the city change its failed housing policies. These weren’t secretive moves—they used signs, community meetings, and church pulpits to organize and spread the word.

Gloria Giles, a young single mother, was one of many who, fed up with waiting lists and overcrowding, took over an abandoned home with the support of ACORN organizer Grover Wright. Together, they ran weekly orientations for new squatters, advocating that this direct action was both necessary and just.

The city’s Gift Property Program was ineffective—only 629 of 18,000 applicants got homes in four years. Meanwhile, landlords and developers bought abandoned homes cheaply at sheriff’s sales, renovated them, and sold or rented them for profit.

Councilman John Street introduced a bill to legalize squatting in certain cases, but city officials, including future mayor Wilson Goode, resisted, prioritizing property rights and demolition efforts instead. In 1982 alone, $4.2 million was spent to tear down over 1,000 homes—many of them still livable.

As squatting increased—20 new homes a month—the movement wasn’t just about shelter. It was a protest against neglect, abandonment, and inaction, demanding a city that put people before profit.

ACORN Goes to Washington (2006)

Watch as ACORN members from across the country head to Capitol Hill to confront politicians face-to-face, demanding action on the issues that matter most—from housing to wages to voting rights. Real people, real stories, real power.

ACORN 30th Anniversary Retrospective

In this powerful look back, community members reflect on 30 years of organizing, sharing how being part of ACORN changed their lives—and their neighborhoods. Their stories are a testament to the power of grassroots action and the lasting impact of people coming together to fight for justice.