As Los Angeles prepares to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the city’s most enduring civic institutions is gearing up for a high-energy, high-stakes gathering that places democracy directly in the hands of the people.
The Empowerment Congress will convene its 34th Annual Empowerment Congress Summit on Saturday, January 17, 2026, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the California Science Center, bringing together residents, organizers, and political leaders for a morning designed to move the community from ideas to action.
This year’s theme — “From Vision to Action: A Forum to Unlock Participatory Democracy” — signals both urgency and opportunity. At the heart of the summit is a non-partisan gubernatorial candidate forum moderated by KBLA owner Tavis Smiley, featuring some of California’s most prominent leaders: former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former State Assemblymember Ian Calderon, former California State Controller Betty Yee, business leader and climate advocate Tom Steyer, and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. All the other major announced candidates have been invited, including Republican front runners Riverside Sheriff, Chad Bianco, and Fox News personality, Steve Hilton, as well as former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Bacerra, U.S. Representative Katie Porter, current U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell.
With a capacity crowd of at least 500 people expected — largely from South Los Angeles but reflective of the region’s broader diversity — the summit is built for participation, not passivity. Attendees are civic-minded, action-oriented, and deeply committed to the principles that have defined the Empowerment Congress for more than three decades: participatory democracy, reciprocal accountability, intentional civility, and social responsibility.
For 34 years, the Empowerment Congress — widely regarded as Los Angeles County’s most successful experiment in neighborhood-based civic engagement — has served as the region’s signature public-policy convening during MLK holiday weekend, grounding modern civic engagement in Dr. King’s call to “redeem the soul of America.” Since its founding in 1992 by former City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, the organization has operated on a radical but simple idea: democracy works best when everyday people are actively involved in shaping the decisions that affect their lives.
As Mayor Karen Bass has said, “The beauty of the Empowerment Congress is that it is a vehicle from which people can directly and consistently participate in their government.”
That philosophy has produced tangible, real-world results. Born out of the unrest and organizing that followed the police beating of Rodney King and the killing of Latasha Harlins, the Empowerment Congress initially focused on police accountability before expanding its work into zoning, public safety, economic development, and government reform. Its legacy includes helping lay the groundwork for the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, shaping major infrastructure projects such as the Crenshaw/LAX rail line, and securing a long-fought-for station at Leimert Park — a clear example of civic engagement advocacy transformed into community victory.
Today, guided by its “Educate, Engage, Empower” motto, the Empowerment Congress continues to operate as a national model for grassroots democracy, connecting neighborhood groups, faith institutions, nonprofits, businesses, and residents with elected officials at the city, county, and state levels. Through summits, working groups, and facilitated dialogue, the organization ensures that civic engagement is not symbolic, but substantive.
At its core, the Empowerment Congress is grounded in the belief that civic engagement fosters a sense of reciprocal accountability — a shared responsibility among community members, institutions, and leaders to achieve equitable outcomes and social justice. Guided by this principle, the Congress works to encourage and enlist full community participation to improve quality of life; educate and inform residents about how government works; develop strategies that influence policy and legislation; and connect communities to public resources.
“Civic engagement is the contemporary expression of the philosophy of non-violence in the public sphere,” according to Ridley-Thomas.
A central focus of the Congress remains involving local communities in holding elected officials and government institutions responsive and accountable to residents’ expectations. “I do not like elected officials who complain about what they cannot do,” Ridley-Thomas noted. “They cannot do everything, but they can do a whole lot more than they tell you that they can do. And I believe that if you expect the best, you get the best most of the time. That’s one of the principles of the Empowerment Congress.”
L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell is among the officials who have freely lauded the Empowerment Congress for its more than 30 years of fostering dialogue and empowerment. “This space allows people to come together, hear vital information, and determine how to take part in shaping a better future,” Mitchell told L.A. Focus while attending last year’s summit.
As Empowerment Congress executive committee member Pastor Eddie Anderson has emphasized, the work remains urgent: communities must sustain expectations, engage allies, demand accountability, and push for policies that deliver real results in democracy, equity, and social justice.
“We do this by providing accurate information about critical issues affecting our communities,” Anderson said. “That information helps us identify real opportunities and use our agency — individually and collectively — to empower ourselves and improve our quality of life. Our voices still matter. We must engage our allies and identify new ones, remain vigilant advocates for our families and neighbors, and stay focused on results. We must demand accountability and the successful implementation of policies that claim to serve our interests in democracy, equity, and social justice. And we must make it clear that our pursuit of justice is far from over — as Dr. King said, we ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around.”
Sponsors for this year’s summit include the California Wellness Foundation, Charles R. Drew University, United Faith Coalition, the Weingart Foundation, KBLA, and the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, underscoring the broad coalition invested in sustaining civic power and community leadership.
More than three decades later, the Empowerment Congress is still doing what it was created to do — educate, engage, and empower — proving that when people show up, speak out, and work together, participatory democracy is not just an ideal, but a living practice.
As Ridley-Thomas put it, “The very concept of being empowered inspires individuals to do more than they may have thought they could. Coupled with education and engagement, empowerment helps us take it to another level.”