Experience has taught us that language is personal, visceral, and powerful— it is connected to our selves at the most fundamental level. Yet, for many of us across the US South, accessing power structures through collective action can be nearly impossible if we can’t participate in our own languages. This is because a majority of public institutions and community organizations operate from a “professional,” English-only model that permeates institutional culture in the South and creates barriers to access. Southerners are often further disenfranchised when our dialects or our way of communicating are not respected (users of rural dialects or Black English, for example). When we unite to demand opportunities as immigrants and LGBTQI+ communities, for example, language must not be a barrier but a tool for mutual empowerment. This moves us beyond the framework of just access; we see language as a tool to build community leadership and power across our many languages, dislodging language dominance in order to have linguistic democracy.