About the Movement

What The World Needs To Know About Black Lives Matter

The Top 4 Myths About the Black Lives Matter Movement – Debunked

The Movement for Black Lives – Platform Statement – “In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country have come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda…”

Why and How Clergy Should Stand with Protesters – “We must be clear: Police are agents of the state. They have historically used the clergy’s access and influence to control the people. In return, clergy have gained access to those in power. To what end? Our children are still hunted prey. Our communities are still blighted. Our schools are underfunded…”

1944 interracial sit-ins at downtown St. Louis department stores

St. Louis’s Forgotten Sit-In Story – From the St. Louis History Museum’s Exhibit: “Long before college students held their sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, St. Louisans were using the tactic to push for a change in their city’s segregated dining establishments.”

9 Ways We Can Make Social Justice Movements Less Elitist and More Accessible – Fantastic article! “So here’s my access request to my social justice community: I want [our activism] to be full of love. And love – radical love, transformative love, the kind that brings people in and changes us over a million private revolutionary moments – doesn’t leave people out of the movement.” 

We didn’t start a movement. We started a network. – from Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac, who co-founded the hashtag. “And as we inch closer to liberation, we will do so in different ways, and it is important to note the differences in how we approach this important work. As a friend of mine recently said: ‘there’s no one right way to get free…'”

What #BlackLivesMatter Is Actually Asking For – And Why It Benefits You, Too – great intro to the movement

Direct Action and “The White Moderate” – A reflection on what Dr. King has to say about non-violent direct action, and the significance of what he calls ‘the white moderate.’

VIDEO: Fire this Time – a #Ferguson Film. The Ferguson Protest Movement through the eyes of protesters, reporters, attorneys and activists

Movement Strategies

Waiting for a Perfect Protest? – “Those standing on the sidelines of the current racial-justice movement, waiting for a pristine or flawless exercise of righteous protest, will have a long wait… Rather than critique from afar, come out of your homes, follow those who are closest to the pain, and help us to redeem this country, and yourselves, in the process.”

MLK Would Never Shut Down a Freeway, and 6 Other Myths About the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter  – “Calling out these myths is more than setting the historical record straight. The “propaganda of history,” as W.E.B. Du Bois reminded us a century ago, becomes a way of “giving us a false but pleasurable sense of accomplishment”—for soothing and justifying inaction in the face of persistent racial inequality.”

Photo: Richard Reilly

Charlottesville Showed that Liberalism Can’t Defeat White Supremacy. Only Direct Action Can. “..generic solutions to the racial problem — bland affirmations of inclusiveness, tolerance and “free speech” — will no longer work. Indeed, they have never worked, at least not on their own. The problem of discrimination and equality in America has been far more dynamic, operating like an oversized historical game of paper-rock-scissors. And in such a game, throwing the same thing over and over again is never a good idea…”

The Powerful Symbolism of Shutting Down an Interstate  – “Shutting down Interstates is a powerful and meaningful symbolic protest. It disrupts the thing which has materially enabled self-segregation. We have sacrificed our communities to allow people to pass through, fast. The symbolism of forcing a pause is powerful. Requiring that this mechanism, the one thing drivers are universally happy to claim ownership of in our urban areas, grind to a halt, is a powerful and meaningful statement.”

American Devotion to Order over Justice Must End – “If both the legal and electoral systems are unable to realize the rights of communities of color and the working poor, then disruption tactics by activists become a necessary strategy.”

Why Highways Have Become the Center of Civil Rights Protest – Insightful, thorough article!