User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
Portal maintenance status: (February 2019)
|
Introduction
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 1Johnetta "Netta" Elzie (born April 16, 1989) is an American civil rights activist. She is one of the leaders in the activist group We The Protesters and co-edits the Ferguson protest newsletter This Is the Movement with fellow activist DeRay Mckesson. (Full article...)
-
Image 2On August 30, 2022, 20-year-old African-American man Donovan Lewis (born (2002-05-14)May 14, 2002) was shot and killed by Officer Ricky Anderson of the Columbus Division of Police (CDP) in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio as officers served a warrant at his apartment. Police were serving a warrant against Lewis for domestic violence against his pregnant girlfriend, assault and improper handling of a firearm. After officers detained two men at the apartment, police opened the door to Lewis's bedroom, after which point Anderson fired a single shot at Lewis who was laying in bed. (Full article...)
-
Image 38 to Abolition is a police and prison abolition resource created during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. (Full article...)
-
Image 4Natalie Aleta Jackson is an American trial attorney from Orlando, Florida. She is also known as an author and human rights activist. Her involvement in the Trayvon Martin case and her use of the #TrayvonMartin Twitter hashtag (considered by some a precursor to #BlackLivesMatter) has led to her being connected to the formation of that movement. She is frequently invited to speak on the Black Lives Matter movement. She is best known for her work on the Trayvon Martin case, though she has been mentioned in the media regarding a number of other high-profile cases. Jackson is a frequent commenter on ongoing cases for news publications. (Full article...)
-
Image 5On January 13, 2019, George Robinson, a 62-year-old Black man, died two days after a violent arrest by three Black police officers in Jackson, Mississippi. According to a grand jury indictment, the officers pulled Robinson out of a car, threw him headfirst into the pavement, and struck and kicked him multiple times in the head and chest. Robinson was treated at the scene but within hours lost consciousness and later died at a hospital. The state coroner ruled the death a homicide.
After an internal Jackson Police Department investigation cleared the officers of wrongdoing, one of the officers continued working for the Jackson Police Department, and the other two were hired by a police department in a nearby town. Following the George Floyd protests a year later, as well as a lengthy grand jury review, all three officers were indicted for second-degree murder on August 5, 2020. (Full article...) -
Image 6On February 4, 2018, Anthony Weber, a 16-year-old African-American boy, was fatally shot by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Westmont, California. Deputies came to the scene because they received a 911 call. The caller claimed someone had pointed a gun at him. The deputies claimed that Weber reached into his waistband so they shot him over ten times. Deputies did not find a gun on Weber. (Full article...)
-
Image 7
This is a list of protests and unrest in the United States related to the murder of George Floyd. The protests began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, the day after George Floyd, an African-American man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin during a police arrest. On June 6, an estimated half a million people joined protests in 550 places across the country. Protests continued through the weekend of June 19, overlapping with and bringing awareness to observations of Juneteenth. Protests had continued throughout the entire month of June in many cities, with protests occurring in over 40% of counties in the United States. Polls estimate between 15 million and 26 million people participated in the United States, making these protests potentially the largest movement in terms of participation in U.S. history.
The protests spread to over 2,000 cities and towns in all 50 states and all 5 permanently-inhabited territories, as well as in over 60 other countries, with demonstrators supporting those seeking justice for Floyd and the wider Black Lives Matter movement, and speaking out against police brutality. Many protests were accompanied by violence with some large cities seeing large scale rioting, looting, and burning of businesses and police cars. There were also many instances of police brutality. The wave of protests and unrest has been compared to the long, hot summer of 1967 and the King assassination riots, both of which saw riots in over 10 cities across the United States. (Full article...) -
Image 8The killing of Charley Leundeu Keunang, a 43-year-old Cameroonian national, occurred in Los Angeles, California, on March 1, 2015. He was shot by three Los Angeles Police Department officers.
On December 1, 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers who shot Keunang, and that they considered it an act of self-defense. Later on May 10, 2018, the Superior Court of California ruled that an officer used an unreasonable amount of force against Keunang and the case was settled with paying his family $1.95 million by the city. (Full article...) -
Image 9
In August 2020, eight artists painted a Black Lives Matter street mural in Salt Lake City's Washington Square Park, outside the Salt Lake City and County Building, in the U.S. state of Utah. The city had commissioned the painting with a contest "to support and memorialize the national movement to eliminate systemic racism". (Full article...) -
Image 10"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 11Racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass unfavorable assessments, are often activated involuntarily and without the awareness or intentional control of the individual. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Police officers have implicit bias, regardless of their ethnicity. Racial bias in criminal news reporting in the United States is a manifestation of this bias. (Full article...)
-
Image 12
Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was fatally shot by police on November 19, 2011, in White Plains, New York. After his LifeAid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to his home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain's door. According to police, Chamberlain charged at them with a knife and he was tasered, and then fatally shot. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, black, retired Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert pendant due to a chronic heart problem.
The shooting was the topic of the 2019 film The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. (Full article...) -
Image 13
Blue Lives Matter (also known as Police Lives Matter) is a countermovement in the United States that emerged in 2014 in direct opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. It gained traction following the high-profile homicides of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn, New York. Supporters of Blue Lives Matter have called for crimes committed against police officers to be classified as hate crimes.
Critics[who?] have said that while being Black is an inherent characteristic, being a police officer is a choice, and that police officers are already respected in most communities. They add that attacking or killing a police officer already carries a higher penalty than attacking a non-police officer in most states. (Full article...) -
Image 14
Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state. (Full article...) -
Image 15Peoples Power Assemblies (PPA) is an advocacy group in the United States that coordinates through local offices of the Workers World Party. The group advocates for jobs, healthcare, and educations and against police brutality, sexism, and anti-LGBT and ableist oppression.
The group has been involved in organising protests and demonstrations in the aftermath of the killing of Freddie Gray, Korryn Gaines, and the murder of George Floyd. (Full article...) -
Image 16On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a local police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Slager had stopped Scott for a non-functioning brake light. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced showing him shooting Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing, which contradicted Slager's report of the incident. The racial difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, generating a widespread controversy.
The case was independently investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division conducted their own investigations. In June 2015, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on a charge of murder. He was released on bond in January 2016. In late 2016, a five-week trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. In May 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges including violation of Scott's civil rights and obstruction of justice. In a May 2017 plea agreement, Slager pleaded guilty to federal charges of civil rights violations, and he was returned to jail pending sentencing. In return for his guilty plea, the state's murder charges were dropped. (Full article...) -
Image 17
Cat Brooks is an American activist, playwright, poet and theater artist. She was a mayoral candidate in Oakland's 2018 election. (Full article...) -
Image 18
On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021. (Full article...) -
Image 19Antwon Rose II was a 17-year-old African-American who was fatally shot in East Pittsburgh on June 19, 2018, by police officer Michael Rosfeld after being suspected of attempted murder by participating in a drive-by shooting. According to the police report, Rose had an empty handgun magazine in his pocket and gunshot residue on his hand. Allegheny County Medical Examiner Daniel Wolfe said the residue was likely the result of Rose firing a gun. He was transported to UPMC where he was later declared deceased.
Following the shooting, Rosfeld was charged with criminal homicide, and was found not guilty. On October 25, 2019, Rosfeld and East Pittsburgh settled a civil lawsuit over Rose's death for $2 million. (Full article...) -
Image 20"The Bigger Picture" is a protest song by American rapper Lil Baby. It was released on June 12, 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. In the song, Lil Baby shows solidarity with the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests calling for justice against police brutality in the United States and systemic racism. Proceeds from "The Bigger Picture" benefit The National Association of Black Journalists, Breonna Taylor's attorney, The Bail Project, and Black Lives Matter.
It is Lil Baby's highest-charting song as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting and peaking at number three, behind "Trollz" by 6ix9ine & Nicki Minaj and "Rockstar" by DaBaby & Roddy Ricch. It was later added to the deluxe edition of his second studio album My Turn. The song received two nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. (Full article...) -
Image 21
A mural of George Floyd was painted by Emma Berger outside Portland, Oregon's Apple Pioneer Place, on June 1, 2020, a week after his murder, against the background of the ongoing protests against police brutality. She expanded the mural to show Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and phrases associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The work was vandalized in August, and repaired by the artist. It was covered by Apple Inc. in December for preservation, then removed in January 2021 to be donated to Don't Shoot PDX. (Full article...) -
Image 22On September 27, 2016, Alfred Olango, a 38-year old former refugee from Uganda, was shot and killed by police responding to a 911 call occurred in El Cajon, California, United States. He died later that day in a hospital. Officers on scene claimed to have believed Olango was pointing a firearm; the object in his hand was an e-cigarette. The shooting sparked days of protests in El Cajon and around San Diego County.
San Diego County prosecutors declined to file charges against officers who were involved in the shooting. (Full article...) -
Image 23
On June 18, 2020, Nick Lloyd painted the phrase "Black Lives Matter" in large bright yellow block letters on North Edison Street in Portland, Oregon's St. Johns neighborhood. (Full article...) -
Image 24
Ayọ Tometi (born August 15, 1984), formerly known as Opal Tometi, is an American human rights activist, writer, strategist, and community organizer. She is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter (BLM). She is the former executive director of the United States' first national immigrant rights organization for people of African descent, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), working there in various roles for over nine years.
She started as an active community organizer in her hometown advocating for human rights issues. She has campaigned for advancing human rights, migrant rights, and racial justice worldwide. She also worked as a case manager for survivors of domestic violence. (Full article...) -
Image 25
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...)
Did you know...
- ... that Arkansas legislator Denise Jones Ennett took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of the Arkansas State Capitol?
Need help?
Do you have a question about Black Lives Matter that you can't find the answer to?
Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
Get involved
For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Black Lives Matter-related articles, see WikiProject Black Lives Matter.
Selected images
-
Image 1Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 2Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 3A 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 4Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 5Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 6Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 7Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 8"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 9One-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 10Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 11Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 13Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 14Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 15Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 16Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 17An 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 18George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 20Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 21Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 23Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 26Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 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 28A Black Lives Matter die-in over rail tracks, protesting alleged police brutality in Saint Paul, Minnesota (September 20, 2015) (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 29"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 31The 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 33A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
-
Image 34Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
In the news
- 16 May 2024 – Murder of Garrett Foster
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a man at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. (The New York Times)
Subcategories
- Select [►] to view subcategories
Subtopics
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
- What are portals?
- List of portals
Category:Portals needing placement of incoming links Category:Society portals