Active support for Black Lives Matter
- Growth of Issue Organizations
- Growth of Racial Justice Protest Events
- Growth of Related Legislative Wins
Note: for a case study of a campaign (active support), see the story of the #ByeAnita campaign to unseat a State’s Attorney in Chicago, Illinois.
Growth of Issue Organizations
It is challenging to assess the complete spectrum of growth of grassroots groups on an issue, whether in the general context of a movement or in the wake of trigger events. For example, the Funders for Justice group has an expanding list of 162 “organizations addressing police accountability and racial justice” as a resource for funding organizations.
Yet, many movements and trigger events will spawn groups that are not large or “professional”/structured enough to gain a spot on such lists. For example, Colorlines described a group that the reporter encountered on the first Ferguson “freedom rides” into St. Louis in 2014:
“Since protestors are blocking the street, our bus driver makes a risky U-turn. My group rides to the community barbecue, which is taking place in a Ferguson parking lot. This is where members of Lost Voices, a black teen group that has formed in the days since Brown was killed, have been sleeping for weeks. They started out on cardboard boxes; people have since donated tents. On the mic hooked up to a sound truck, one boy announces that he's lost both of his jobs because he was here instead of at work. Another tells the small group of attendees that they plan to stay here until Wilson is arrested.”
Often, named organizations come out of inspiration and community at mass protest events. Here are a few organizations that came out of mass protest events or convenings associated with the #BlackLivesMatter movement:
BYP100 - Black Youth Project 100 is an organization with X chapters across the nation. BYP100 was formed at a convening in the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in 2013, by Black Youth Project housed at the University of Chicago.
Baltimore Bloc - founded in 2013. “Building a grassroots collective of friends, families and neighborhoods, united to decolonize communities and organize for kujichagulia.”
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice – national organization with 10 chapters (as of July 2016). “The conditions leading to Trayvon's death is what brought Million Hoodies Movement for Justice to form as an organization; helping to generate global support for the arrest of George Zimmerman.”
BlackOUT Collective – a black-led direct action training and organizing group based in Oakland, which came out of seeing a dearth of black direct action trainers at Ferguson protests in the fall of 2014.
Black Liberation Collective – “The Black Liberation Collective is a collective consisting of Black students who are dedicated to transforming institutions of higher education through unity, coalition building, direct action and political education." Founded in 2015 after the Movement for Black Lives convening in Cleveland.
Others include the Ferguson Response Network (2014), HandsUp United (2014), NYC Shut It Down (2014), WhiteCoats4BlackLives (2014), and many more.
The Black Lives Matter network itself founded in 2013 is constituted of local chapters, and multiple news sources cite the network as containing 26 chapters (including Toronto) in 2015. Currently (as of early 2017), there are 38 chapters listed on the website.
Growth of Racial Justice Protest Events
The website Elephrame bills itself as “the only comprehensive record of worldwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations.” Started by Alisa Robinson – a graduate of the political science department at the University of Chicago – it lists protest events by location, topic, and estimated attendance that are verified by news links.
As of June 5, 2017, Robinson writes “At least 1,940 Black Lives Matter protests and other demonstrations have been held in the past 1,054 days.”
Growth of Related Legislative Wins
The best way to assess or track legislative victories associated with the current movement for racial justice is to survey the demands of movement groups – which have differences among them. Some of the platforms with legislative agendas include:
A Vision for Black Lives – written by a collective of 50+ organizations affiliated with the Movement for Black Lives. Released August 1, 2016. The policy demands fall under the categories of: end the war on black people, reparations, invest-divest, economic justice, community control, and political power.
Agenda to Build Black Futures – written by BYP100 and released on January 15, 2016. Policy demands fall under categories of reparations, workers’ rights, eliminating profit from punishment, valuing women’s work, supporting trans* wealth and health, and stabilizing and revitalizing black communities.
Campaign Zero – written by activists Johnetta Elzie, Deray Mckesson, Samuel Sinyangwe, and Brittany Packnett and released on August 15, 2015. Focuses on specific state-level and federal policy solutions to “limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability.”
Campaign Zero is the only platform that provides info about tracking legislative progress at this point. They have a full map summarizing bills that have been proposed, passed, and signed into law and this summary (last updated April 2017):
At least 88 laws have been enacted in the past two years to address police violence
New legislation has been enacted in 30 states since 2014
6 states (CA, CO, CT, IL, MD, UT) have enacted legislation addressing three or more Campaign Zero policy categories
At least 46 bills are currently being considered in 17 states to address police violence.
Please note that we are using Campaign Zero as an example of legislative tracking at this point, rather than as a model of grassroots organizing.
In an Associated Press piece published in August 2015, the AP analysis found that, since Ferguson protests in August 2014:
“Twenty-four states have passed at least 40 new measures addressing such things as officer-worn cameras, training about racial bias, independent investigations when police use force and new limits on the flow of surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies...The AP analysis of legislation passed in all 50 states found the greatest interest in officer cameras that can capture what transpires between police and civilians. Sixteen states passed body-camera measures this year, ranging from resolutions merely creating study panels to state grants subsidizing cameras and new laws on how they can be used. Numerous cities from coast-to-coast, including Ferguson, also began using the cameras without waiting for legislative direction.”
The AP coverage also suggests lawmakers are pushed to act by trigger events, especially those that are close to home:
“In South Carolina, the Ferguson-inspired bills didn’t pick up steam until the issue hit closer to home, when a bystander’s cellphone video showed a white North Charleston officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man in the back in April. Two months later, Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill allowing state aid for police agencies to buy body cameras.
Advocates for police accountability pushed hard in Maryland this legislative session with limited success, winning passage of bills covering body camera policies and fatal incident reporting. Gray’s death occurred shortly after the session ended. Now Maryland lawmakers have formed a panel to further examine public safety and police practices, and civil rights activists there are urging lawmakers to do more.”
As of late 2016 and early 2017, many articles have been published suggesting that Black Lives Matter leaders and organizations are turning more towards policy work. BLM founder Alicia Garza said at an event in 2017, “What people are seeing is that there are less demonstrations,” Garza said. “A lot of that is that people are channeling their energy into organizing locally, recognizing that in Trump’s America, our communities are under direct attack.”