User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal

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Introduction

Logo and flag often used in the Black Lives Matter movement

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people and to promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. The movement began in response to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. BLM and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes related to black liberation and criminal justice reform. While there are specific organizations that label themselves "Black Lives Matter", such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the overall movement is a decentralized network with no formal hierarchy. , there are about 40 chapters in the United States and Canada. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself has not been trademarked by any group.

In 2013, activists and friends Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.

The movement gained international attention during global protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An estimated 15 to 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest protest movements in the country's history. Despite being characterized by opponents as violent, the overwhelming majority of BLM demonstrations have been peaceful.

The popularity of Black Lives Matter has shifted over time, largely due to changing perceptions among white Americans. In 2020, 67% of adults in the United States expressed support for the movement, declining to 51% of U.S. adults in 2023. Support among people of color has, however, held strong, with 81% of African Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 63% of Asian Americans expressing support for Black Lives Matter as of 2023. (Full article...)

Selected general articles

Image 1
Washington Redskins players kneeling before a game against the Oakland Raiders in September 2017

Taking the knee (or taking a knee) is a symbolic gesture against racism whereby an individual kneels upon one knee in place of standing to attention for an anthem or other such occasion. It was originated by American football player Colin Kaepernick on September 1, 2016, in protest against the alleged lack of attention given to the issues of racial inequality and police brutality in the United States. Kaepernick's protest led to a wider series of national anthem protests. It has since been adopted by sports players in countries around the world, including association football in the United Kingdom, in solidarity with Kaepernick's protest against racism, and has been seen worldwide in non-sporting contexts such as the Black Lives Matter protests. (Full article...)
Image 2
White Coats for Black Lives rally in Columbus, Ohio, in 2020.

White Coats for Black Lives (also known as WhiteCoats4BlackLives and WC4BL) is a nonprofit social justice student organization based in the United States. Founded in 2014 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, WC4BL supports efforts to fight racism in medicine and health care.

The organization participates in and organized protests against systemic racism at medical schools and the health care system in general, including protests in support of the end of police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. WC4BL members and supporters often wear white coats during events. Some events take the form of walkouts or die-ins. (Full article...)
Image 3

Blair Imani in 2018

Blair Imani (born Blair Elizabeth Brown, October 31, 1993) is an American author, historian, and activist. She identifies as queer, Black, bisexual and Muslim. She is a member of the Black Lives Matter movement, and is known for protesting the shooting of Alton Sterling and Executive Order 13769. (Full article...)
Image 4
Police misconduct is inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Types of misconduct include among others: sexual offences, coerced false confession, intimidation, false arrest, false imprisonment, falsification of evidence, spoliation of evidence, police perjury, witness tampering, police brutality, police corruption, racial profiling, unwarranted surveillance, unwarranted searches, and unwarranted seizure of property. (Full article...)
Image 5

Location of Dearborn Heights in the state of Michigan.

The murder of Renisha Marie McBride (April 11, 1994 –November 2, 2013), a 19-year-old African American teenager, occurred on November 2, 2013, in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, United States. Renisha McBride crashed her car while intoxicated at a street in Detroit, and then walked to a neighborhood in Dearborn Heights where she knocked on the door of a house. The homeowner, 54-year-old Theodore Wafer, shot McBride with a shotgun. Wafer contended that the shooting was accidental and that he thought his home was being broken into after he heard her banging on his door at 4:42 in the morning.

Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder on August 7, 2014, and received a sentence of 17 to 32 years in prison. His sentence was re-affirmed in 2022. (Full article...)
Image 6
Sandy Hudson is a Jamaican-Canadian political activist, writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement presence in Canada. (Full article...)
Image 7
16 Shots is a documentary film about the murder of Laquan McDonald. Written and directed by Richard Rowley, it is an updated and expanded version of the 2018 movie The Blue Wall. It had a limited theatrical release on June 7, 2019, and started streaming on Showtime on June 14, 2019. It was released on DVD on August 4, 2020.

16 Shots won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and a Television Academy Honor and was nominated for a Peabody Award. (Full article...)
Image 8

Eugene Puryear (born February 28, 1986) is a far-left American journalist, writer, activist, politician, and host on BreakThrough News. In 2014, he was a candidate for the at-large seat in the DC Council with the D.C. Statehood Green Party. In the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections, Puryear was the vice presidential nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), despite being ineligible to become vice president due to his age. (Full article...)
Image 9
"Shopping while black" is a phrase used for the type of marketplace discrimination that is also called "consumer racial profiling", "consumer racism" or "racial profiling in a retail setting", as it applies to black people. Shopping while black is the experience of being denied service or given poor service because one is black. (Full article...)
Image 10
Christopher Kapessa (6 January 2006 – 1 July 2019) was a Welsh boy who died at the age of 13 in the River Cynon on 1 July 2019. He was pushed from a height of 2.5 metres into the water and declared dead on the same day.

According to Kapessa's family and their representatives, the police investigation into the incident lasted around two days, the event declared "an accident" within 24 hours. A fortnight later, the anti-racist charity The Monitoring Group submitted a complaint to South Wales Police on behalf of Kapessa's mother Alina Joseph, alleging racial discrimination in the police response. In February 2020, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reported that there was "sufficient evidence" but not "public interest" for a manslaughter case against a child suspected to have pushed Kapessa into the river. A 2024 inquest found that it was a "dangerous prank" that caused Kapessa's death, but that the child who pushed him did not intend to kill him. The coroner found no evidence that the death was caused by racism. (Full article...)
Image 11

Location of Madison, within Dane County, and Dane County within Wisconsin

The killing of Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. occurred on March 6, 2015, in Madison, Wisconsin. Robinson, an unarmed 19-year-old man, was fatally shot by Madison police officer Matthew Kenny during a "check-person" call. Kenny was responding to dispatch reports that Robinson was jumping in front of cars and acting erratically, and that he had harmed someone in an apartment. On May 12, 2015, the shooting was determined to be justified self-defense by the Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne. The death was protested by the Black Lives Matter movement; Robinson was biracial, with a black father and a white mother. (Full article...)
Image 12
Then-United States Congresswoman Marcia Fudge holding a T-shirt reading "Stay Woke: Vote" in 2018

Woke is a political slang adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.

The phrase stay woke has been present in AAVE since the 1930s. In some contexts, it referred to an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in recordings from the mid-20th century by Lead Belly and, post-millennium, by Erykah Badu. (Full article...)
Image 13
Attendees at the #SayHerName vigil of May 20, 2015, located at Union Square in New York City

#SayHerName is a social movement that seeks to raise awareness for Black women victims of police brutality and anti-Black violence in the United States. The movement's name was created by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF). #SayHerName aims to highlight the gender-specific ways in which Black women are disproportionately affected by fatal acts of racial injustice. In an effort to create a large social media presence alongside existing racial justice campaigns, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackGirlsMatter, the AAPF coined the hashtag #SayHerName in December 2014.

In May 2015, the AAPF released a report entitled "Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality against Black Women", which outlined the goals and objectives of the #SayHerName movement. In July 2015, Sandra Bland, a woman who had been taken into police custody after a traffic violation, was found hanged three days later in her jail cell. Following Bland's death, the AAPF, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, and Andrea Ritchie issued an updated version of the original report. (Full article...)
Image 14
After an arrest, if the charges are dropped, a person will sometimes file legal action or a complaint against the appropriate arresting agency.
In most jurisdictions, the arrest powers of police and police agents are in excess of those afforded to ordinary citizens (see citizen's arrest). However, the powers of police officers to arrest are not unlimited. Generally speaking:
1. Anyone may arrest a person if in possession of an arrest warrant issued by an appropriate court. In the United States, this includes bounty hunters (agents of bail bondsmen) acting under the authority of a bench warrant to bring a criminal defendant who has skipped bail to court for trial.
2. A police officer, or a person authorized by a jurisdiction's police powers act, may arrest anyone whom the officer has probable cause to believe has committed any criminal offence. However, in the case of a misdemeanour, summary conviction offence, or non-criminal offence (such as a municipal by-law offence) the officer may arrest the suspect only long enough to identify the suspect and give the suspect a summons to appear in court, unless there is reason to believe they will not appear in answer to the summons.
3. Any person may arrest someone suspected of committing a felony or indictable offence, as long as the arresting person believes the suspect is attempting to flee the scene of the felony scene. A person cannot be arrested on suspicion of committing a felony well after the fact unless the arresting officer possesses an arrest warrant.
(Full article...)
Image 15
"Chains" is a song by American R&B recording artist Usher featuring American rapper Nas and German singer-songwriter Bibi Bourelly. It was released on October 15, 2015, as a Tidal exclusive. The song is titled “Chains”, the interactive video experience is called “Don’t Look Away”, using facial recognition technology forcing viewers to watch, to keep their eyes fixed on those of the victims. (Full article...)
Image 16
"Alright" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar featured on the artist's third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). The song expresses ideas of hope amid personal struggles and features uncredited vocals in its chorus from co-producer Pharrell Williams. "Alright" was released to radio stations as the album's fourth single on June 30, 2015. Many music publications considered it among the best songs and videos of the year. "Alright" received four nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, winning the latter two. It was also nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.

The song was associated with the Black Lives Matter movement after several youth-led protests were heard chanting the chorus. Publications such as Rolling Stone, People, and Complex noted the song's importance in the protests calling "Alright" the "unifying soundtrack" of the movement. In 2019, it was named the best song of the 2010s by Pitchfork. Lamar, alongside notable artists Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and 50 Cent, performed "Alright" at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show on February 13, 2022. (Full article...)
Image 17
On April 29, 2017, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old African-American boy, was murdered by police officer Roy Oliver in Balch Springs, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Edwards was shot in the back of the head while riding in the front passenger's seat of a vehicle driving away from officers that attempted to stop it. He was unarmed during the encounter.

Oliver was fired from the department and arrested on May 5, 2017. On August 28, 2018, he was found guilty of murder. On August 29, 2018, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Full article...)
notes = (Full article...)

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice is a 2022 biography about murder victim George Floyd written by Washington Post journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. (Full article...)

Levy Armstrong in 2015

Nekima Valdez Levy Armstrong (née Levy-Pounds, c. 1976) is an American lawyer and social justice activist. She was president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP from 2015 to 2016. She has led a variety of organizations that focus on issues of racial equality and disparity in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.

Levy Armstrong was a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis from 2003 to 2016. After concluding her term as an NAACP chapter president and leaving her academic post, she had an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Minneapolis in the 2017 election. She has been a prominent local activist in several protests over the killing of black Americans by police officers. She has been involved in lawsuits to prevent Minneapolis from eliminating single-family zoning, arguing that doing so would harm the environment and communities of color. (Full article...)

Marcellis Stinnette, a 19-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Dante Salinas
in Waukegan, Illinois, United States shortly before midnight on October 20, 2020. He was the passenger in a vehicle that was stopped by police, who were attempting to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. According to police, the officer opened fire when the vehicle moved in reverse towards the officer. The driver, Tafarra Willams, was also wounded but survived. The officer has been fired, and another officer has been placed on administrative leave. Body camera, dashboard camera, and surveillance video of the incident has been publicly released, and the Illinois State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation have opened investigations. Demonstrations were held in Waukegan in the ensuing days. (Full article...)

On July 11, 2016, Randy Lozoya and John Tennis, two Sacramento police officers, attempted to run over, and later shot and killed Joseph Mann, a 51-year-old mentally ill and homeless African-American man armed with a knife. (Full article...)

On May 10, 2019, Ronald Hardin Greene, an unarmed 49-year-old Black man, was killed after being arrested by Louisiana State Police following a high-speed chase outside Monroe, Louisiana. During the arrest, he was stunned, punched, pepper sprayed and placed in a chokehold. He was also dragged face down while handcuffed and shackled, and he was left face down for at least nine minutes. At least six white troopers were involved in the arrest; five were criminally charged in December 2022.

When Greene's corpse was brought to the hospital, police told doctors that his car had run into a tree, a story a doctor said "does not add up", given the nature of Greene's injuries and the fact that there were two stun-gun probes lodged in his body; police later acknowledged that Greene had died during a struggle, but did not mention specifics about any use of force by officers. Although authorities refused to release body camera footage for two years, the Associated Press obtained and published a portion of it in May 2021. In 2022, a medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. (Full article...)

On April 2, 2015, 43-year-old African-American Eric Courtney Harris was fatally shot during an undercover sting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as Harris ran from authorities unarmed. While Harris was being subdued, Tulsa County Reserve Deputy Robert Charles Bates, 73, claims he confused his personal weapon, a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver, for a Model X26 Taser. Bates shot Harris in the back when he was on the ground. According to the Tulsa County Sheriff's office, he immediately said afterwards, "Oh, I shot him! I'm sorry." Bates was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter (unintentional homicide resulting from criminal negligence) and sentenced to four years in prison, and was released after serving 18 months. (Full article...)

Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story is an American documentary television series that premiered on July 30, 2018 on Paramount Network. The six-episode series documents the killing of Trayvon Martin and explores the racial tension in the United States that was brought about in its wake. The series is executive produced by Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, Jay-Z, Chachi Senior, Michael Gasparro, Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason, and Nick Sandow. Furst and Nason also directed the series as well. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that Arkansas legislator Denise Jones Ennett took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of the Arkansas State Capitol?

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Selected images

Image 1Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 2A Black Lives Matter die-in over rail tracks, protesting alleged police brutality in Saint Paul, Minnesota (September 20, 2015) (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 3Protest at St. Nicholas Church in Brighton, June 3, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 4A Black Lives Matter protest of police brutality in the rotunda of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 5An activist holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign outside the Minneapolis Police Fourth Precinct building following the officer-involved killing of Jamar Clark on November 15, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 6Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 7A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 8Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 9Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 10Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 11Black Lives Matter protest in Berlin, Germany, May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 12Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 13Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 14Protest in Brisbane, June 6, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 15Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 16One-year commemoration of the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson unrest at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, August 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 17Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 18Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 19The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Subject to increasing controversy since the 1990s, when his prior reputation as a philanthropist came under scrutiny due to a growing awareness of his slave trading, in June 2020 the statue was toppled, defaced and pushed into Bristol Harbour. (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 20Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 21A "Hands up!" sign displayed at a Ferguson protest in August 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 22"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 23"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 24Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 25A BLM protest in Ohio, July 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 26Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 27Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 28Protest in Vancouver, May 31, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 29Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 30Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 31Protest in Fukuoka, June 21, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 32George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 33Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
Image 34Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)