After 14 years, Code2040 has hosted our final program. The fight for racial equity continues.

By Mimi Fox Melton, CEO

Today, I write to share that after fourteen years, Code2040 has hosted our final program. May 31st will be our last day serving the most incredible community of Black and Latinx technologists, and we will spend the next few months sunsetting our operations. We are angered by the systemic racism that continues to thrive in the tech industry and sad to say goodbye, yet we trust that our work for racial equity will continue with all of you.

The impact of the work that you, our community, has done alongside Code2040 is hard to quantify. Year after year, our students reflect that their participation in a Code2040 program was life changing. Almost always at the forefront of their experience is the power of being in rooms with other Black and Latinx technologists, feeling understood and connected and profoundly not alone. Together, we’ve created a powerful, lasting community.

As we face growing techno-fascism, we recognize that there is an intentional effort to eliminate organizations like Code2040. We have decided to close, but to do so with dignity and care for the over 10,000 Black and Latinx technologists we have served and touched over the years. We maintain that Black and Latinx people have vital contributions to make to the technology that drives our world, and that cultures of white supremacy within tech must be challenged and changed.

We’re bringing our community together one last time. Please join us for a virtual Community Closing on March 26th where we’ll talk about the impact of Code2040’s work, celebrate together, and envision possibilities as we look toward the future.

The work for racial equity continues. There are incredible organizations doing important, necessary, timely work with and for Black and Brown communities, including Detroit Justice Center, Allied Media Project, BEAM, Lee Street Community Center, Movement Generation. We encourage you to support their work through financial gifts and with your time. Thank you for your support over the last decade. Thank you for being alongside us in the collective struggle against systemic racism and techno-fascism. We’ll see you on the road to a future we have yet to imagine.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a Code2040 alum:

"Through knowledge sharing, mentorship, and community, Code2040 gave me more than an internship — it gave me clarity, connection, and confidence. Code2040 gave me language to name my experience, community to affirm it, and tools to help me thrive in an industry that has long told us we don’t belong."

Through Code2040, I realized what was at stake — not just for me, but for those who would come after me. I didn’t have to shrink or perform to be taken seriously. I now had the tools to lead with both strategy and intention. I could lead authentically, unapologetically, and succeed while lifting others as I climbed.

I stopped code-switching and started building with purpose and perspective."

-Jeffrey Clarke, Code2040 Alumn