NATIONWIDE — Billionaire and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores stepped down from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Board of Trustees last night after just one month of pressure from artists and activists to do so due to his role in the prison industry.
“We’re glad that the museum board stood on the right side of this issue and made a decision quickly to have Tom step down. While today’s win will not bring relief to the families he preys on, it’s a clear sign that people are done with his excuses and rejecting the predatory state of the prison industry. Yet, Tom continues to prey on families across the country fighting to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones,” said Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises. “As he rakes in millions off of marginalized people, Tom once told me ‘progress needs patience.’ Well, three years into his ownership of Securus, his time has run out. We won’t stop until he does what’s right: meets advocacy demands for reform — not his own — and gets out of this predatory business once and for all. Tom and his wife sit on other boards, and they’re all at risk until he does.”
“Today, the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art made it clear that there is no seat at the table for prison profiteers,” said Rashad Robinson, President of Color Of Change. “Thanks to this coordinated campaign, Tom Gores was finally removed from LACMA’s Board of Trustees as a result of his dealings in the prison industry. As owner of Securus, Gores has exploited incarcerated people and their families — who are overwhelmingly Black and low-income — with exorbitant fees for prison phone calls. We applaud this resignation, but in order to truly see justice done, Congress must act and approve the Martha Wright Phone Justice Act to ensure that Tom Gores and other billionaires can no longer profit off the pain of Black families.”
On September 9th, Worth Rises and Color of Change delivered a letter to LACMA leadership demanding that Tom Gores be removed from its Board of Trustees. In the weeks that followed, more than 200 major artists, collectors, donors, and other members of the art community — many with ties to the museum — sent their own letters echoing the demand that Gores be removed from the LACMA Board of Trustees. Citing his role in the exploitation of Black, Brown, and economically-distressed communities, the letters were sent after months of fruitless dialogue were followed by cancelled meetings and empty press releases from Tom Gores, whose private equity firm owns Securus, the largest and most predatory prison telecom corporation in the U.S. Securus rakes in more than $700 million annually charging families — disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous families — egregious rates for phone calls from prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers.
“I’m thrilled that the board recognized the severity of the issue, as well as their complicity in it, and acted swiftly to remedy their ties to Gores and to the toxic prison industrial complex. This is a testament to that fact that the greater arts community will not accept anything less than full transparency and accountability from our institutions. To be clear, this represents a crucial first step in a long march towards meaningful institutional change, both at LACMA at beyond—and other museums should be on notice,” said Los Angeles artist and art writer Jessica Simmons, who drafted the letter on behalf of the art community.
A Worth Rises and Color of Change petition echoing demands for Tom Gores’ removal from the LACMA Board of Trustees, which garnered ten of thousands of signatures in the last few days. The organizations were gearing up to deliver the petition signatures next week before the news of his resignation came down today. Committed to seeing the predatory practices of the corporation changed, advocates are also looking at Gores’ other public roles, including his and his wife’s other board seats at the National Basketball Association, The Center for Early Education, and other institutions.