Black Lives Matter is an activist movement that protests racially motivated violence against Black people, especially by police. Read the overview below to gain an understanding of the movement and explore the previews of additional articles about racism.
“Black Lives Matter." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2023.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a civil rights movement and activist network that originated from a hashtag campaign on social media in 2013. The #BlackLivesMatter campaign gained momentum online in the wake of a Florida jury finding George Zimmerman not guilty of the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black high school student whom Zimmerman shot and killed. Zimmerman claimed self-defense, but many people saw his acquittal by a jury as racially biased. As a social movement, BLM has focused largely on the lack of accountability for state violence committed against Black Americans, particularly police violence.
The movement has launched an activist network connected through social media that comprises individuals, local and regional groups, and international coalitions. While BLM has focused on police violence and disparities in the criminal justice system, many chapters champion specific issues that are local or personal to their members, including environmental justice and education. Within the movement's first few years, it spread to several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ghana, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (UK).
BLM has attracted the support of many celebrities and professional athletes, while also drawing criticism from conservative politicians, law enforcement organizations, and others. Following a surge of support in 2020, public support for the movement has declined. A 2022 national poll by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that 41 percent of Americans supported BLM's goals and 31 percent supported the movement's tactics. In the 2021 poll 48 percent of Americans supported BLM's goals. Support among African Americans for the movement's goals fell from 67 percent in 2021 to 56 percent in 2022. Though most BLM protests remained peaceful, some provoked strong responses from law enforcement, particularly during protests in 2020, leading to lawsuits against the cities of New York, New York; Denver, Colorado; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, for violating activists' rights to protest.
The phrase "Black Lives Matter" first appeared on social media when activist Alicia Garza posted her response to the Zimmerman verdict on Facebook. Garza's friend and fellow activist Patrisse Cullors saw the post and repurposed the phrase as a hashtag, sharing it on Twitter and launching the online campaign. Garza, Cullors, and Opal Tometi, another activist friend, began promoting the hashtag to mobilize protests against the Zimmerman decision. However, the phrase resonated with Black Americans who felt that the criminal justice system valued the lives of Black people less than the lives of others.
In July 2014 mobile phone footage was released of white New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo using excessive force on Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man. Garner died during the encounter. He could be heard repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" in the footage, and the phrase became a rallying cry for BLM supporters.
Less than one month after Garner's death, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot Michael Brown, an unarmed Black eighteen-year-old. Marches, protests, and rallies in response to the incident were promoted through the BLM social media campaign. Protests took place around the country shortly after Brown's death and in November following a grand jury's refusal to indict the officer for Brown's murder. Protesters in Ferguson were met by a police force armed with military assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, body armor, armored fighting vehicles, and chemical agents banned in warfare, such as tear gas.
The demonstrations in Ferguson brought national attention to BLM, establishing the movement as something more substantial than a social media campaign. Amid national awareness of the protests, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened investigations into the Garner case and on racial bias and the use of force within the Ferguson Police Department. In 2015 the DOJ published its findings about policing in Ferguson, concluding that the city prioritized revenue over public safety needs, and the city's police force and courts held racial biases that adversely affect Black people.
Despite the efforts of BLM, many police officers accused of using excessive force have avoided punishment, even those for whom damaging evidence has been captured on video. Some officers have had charges against them dropped or reduced, while others were not charged at all. Officer accountability has served as a recurring focus of the movement.
The protests in Ferguson established BLM as a political movement with the potential to disrupt the status quo. Activists Johnetta Elzie, Brittany Packnett, and DeRay Mckesson, all prominent voices in the Ferguson protests, became more committed to the movement, launching several secondary projects including Mapping Police Violence (which catalogs police violence and provides analyses of that data) and Campaign Zero (a platform presenting data-driven solutions for policing reform). By 2016 the movement had gained such prominence that both BLM activists and the police violence they condemn became common talking points in US politics.
In the spring of 2020 the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery while he jogged in his Brunswick, Georgia, neighborhood, sparked a new wave of BLM protests. The New York Times reported that between fifteen and twenty-six million Americans participated in demonstrations in support of racial justice in early summer 2020, leading some scholars to call BLM the largest movement in US history.
During the 2020 Democratic primary season, several of the party's candidates consulted with BLM activists. In the months leading to the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump characterized BLM as a treasonous hate group. In contrast, Democratic nominee Joe Biden expressed support for BLM and incorporated into his campaign some of BLM's core principles related to criminal justice reform.
After Biden became president, members of his administration met with BLM leaders in June 2021 to discuss police reform. According to the reports, the movement's leaders appreciated the opportunity to meet with White House officials but characterized the meeting as unproductive. Though members of the movement continued to criticize Biden while in office, the administration has responded to some of the movement's calls for actions. In May 2022, for example, Biden signed an executive order creating the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database to consolidate all records of officer misconduct across the country.
In January 2023 the Memphis Police Department released footage of five officers beating Tyre Nichols, a beating which ultimately led to his death. The incident led to nationwide protests and decisive action by law enforcement officials. The officers involved were fired and charged with second-degree murder. Several other officers, as well as members of the Memphis Fire Department who arrived at the scene but did not assist or intervene, received dismissals. Some observers questioned the role that race played in the incident since the officers involved and the victim were all Black. Some activists highlighted the case as evidence that the criminal justice system itself is inherently discriminatory toward Black people, regardless of the race of the officers carrying out the system's mission.
Some people have responded to the slogan "Black Lives Matter" with concern that the phrase neglects the value of non-Black lives, choosing instead to align themselves with the phrase "All Lives Matter." For BLM supporters, the phrase "All Lives Matter" is seen as a denial that racial disparities exist in the criminal justice system and a dismissal of legitimate grievances. In response BLM activists have clarified that "Black Lives Matter" does not mean that other lives do not matter as well. They explain the phrase is intended to draw attention to the ways in which society does not ascribe the same value to Black lives as it does to the lives of others.
Reports of violence from the Ferguson protests led some Americans to adopt a view of BLM as a violent group hostile to law enforcement and white people. In 2020 during the first week of protests in Minneapolis following the police killing of George Floyd, mostly peaceful daytime protests were followed by nights sporadically dotted with arson, rioting, and looting. However, media critics note that many reports exaggerate the amount of violence and property damage caused by protesters. Following the storming of the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, many activists highlighted how the mostly white protesters encountered a much smaller law enforcement response than many BLM protests and that the media tended to portray right-wing protesters more sympathetically. Further, supporters of the January 6 rioters repeatedly made a false comparison between the violent attempt to stop the 2020 election certification and the peaceful protests of the BLM movement.
Some members of law enforcement have spoken out against BLM. In 2014 police officers in New York City established Blue Lives Matter, a movement to highlight violence committed against law enforcement, support police families, and build public awareness about the needs of police officers. Members of Blue Lives Matter have called for legislation that identifies violence against a police officer or firefighter as a hate crime, and such laws have been considered or passed in several states, including Georgia, Louisiana, and New York. In 2016 Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced the Blue Lives Matter Act, which would make such violence a federal hate crime, to the House of Representatives. However, as of early 2023, the bill had not advanced. Critics of these laws contend that membership in a professional community cannot be equated with membership in the social and racial groups traditionally protected by hate crime legislation.
BLM protests have also inspired legislation that would restrict public demonstration, identify certain activities as unlawful (such as blocking traffic) and impose additional penalties to crimes as part of a protest (such as defacing public monuments). Critics of these laws allege they would curtail freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment and serve to heighten tensions between protesters and law enforcement. Between January 2017 and March 2023, lawmakers in forty-five or more states have introduced at least 266 bills aimed at limiting the right to protest. Further, at least thirty-nine of these laws have passed.
Since 2020, BLM activists have increasingly pushed for policies that would "defund the police." The strategy calls for shifting funding away from police agencies—particularly funds that encourage the further militarization of police equipment and training—to fund public services and community programs aimed at reducing the number of encounters with police. Calls to defund police agencies have brought up concerns that communities with reduced police funding would become lawless or lack adequate resources to help crime victims. BLM's "defund the police" slogan has become part of the national political debate about police reform. Many Republicans and some Democrats have dismissed the idea as dangerous and impractical. President Biden criticized the idea in his 2022 State of the Union address, proposing instead to increase funding.
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In this article, author Keisha N. Blain argues that Black Lives Matter protests in the United States should be considered within the context of a larger global movement against racism and police brutality in Black communities and other communities of color. While 2020 protests may have originated in the United States, Blain emphasizes that the problems they confront are occurring around the world, and must be addressed at a global level.