A co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, John Fullinwider is an educator and community organizer, with more than 35 years’ experience in Dallas, working on a wide range of issues ranging from lead pollution to homelessness. He has served on the boards of the National Coalition for the Homeless, National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Low Income Housing Information Service, and Institute for Community Economics. He has testified as an expert witness on housing and homelessness in federal court and numerous times before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Housing & Community Development. Fullinwider is the co-founder of Common Ground Community Economic Development Corporation, the first community development corporation in Dallas, and East Dallas Community School (now Lumen Education), Dallas Peace & Justice Center, and Friends of the South Dallas Cultural Center. He is board president of Teatro Dallas. John taught for 15 years at Otto Fridia Alternative High School in Dallas ISD; he won the district’s highest honors, the Excellence in High School Teaching Award and the “Golden Apple” Teacher of the Year Award. For his community work, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Equal Justice Award from Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Neighborhood Improvement Award, and the Dallas Urban League President’s “Bridge Builder” Award.

From 2015-2020, John was a key organizer of the successful movement to take down Confederate statues and monuments in Dallas, Texas.