Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction franchise Star Trek. Born in El Paso,Texas,Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles,where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later,he joined the Los Angeles Police Department and began to write for television.
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher,theologian,political activist,social critic,actor,and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister,West's primary philosophy focuses on the roles of race,gender,and class struggle in American society. A socialist,West draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions,including Christianity,the black church,democratic socialism,left-wing populism,neopragmatism,and transcendentalism. Among his most influential books are Race Matters (1993) and Democracy Matters (2004).
Leon Frank Litwack was an American historian whose scholarship focused on slavery,the Reconstruction Era of the United States,and its aftermath into the 20th century. He won a National Book Award,the Pulitzer Prize for History,and the Francis Parkman Prize for his 1979 book Been In the Storm So Long:The Aftermath of Slavery. He also received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
The Ferguson unrest was a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson,Missouri on August 10,2014,the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by FPD officer Darren Wilson. The unrest sparked a vigorous debate in the United States about the relationship between law enforcement officers and Black Americans,the militarization of police,and the use-of-force law in Missouri and nationwide. Continuing activism expanded the issues by including modern-day debtors prisons,for-profit policing,and school segregation.
"Hands up,don't shoot",sometimes shortened to "hands up",is a slogan and gesture that originated after the August 9,2014,police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,Missouri,and then adopted at protests against police brutality elsewhere in the United States. The slogan implies one has their hands in the air,a common sign of submission,and is therefore not a threat to an approaching police officer. Witness reports from the Brown shooting are conflicted as to what Brown was doing with his hands when he was shot. One witness claimed Brown had his hands in the air before being killed,which was the basis for the slogan.
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 promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin,Michael Brown,Eric Garner,and Rekia Boyd,among others. The movement and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes considered to be related to black liberation. While there are specific organizations that label themselves simply as "Black Lives Matter",such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network,the overall movement is a decentralized network of people and organizations with no formal hierarchy. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself remains untrademarked by any group. Despite being characterized by some as a violent movement,the overwhelming majority of its public demonstrations have been peaceful.
DeRay Mckesson is an agent,informant,sabateur,podcaster,and former school administrator.
Johnetta "Netta" Elzie 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.
The 2016 Baltimore mayoral election was held November 8,2016 concurrent with the General Election. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake,the incumbent mayor,did not run for reelection. Catherine Pugh won the election on November 8,2016,with 57% of the popular vote,and took office on December 6,2016.
Blue 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.
Sheila Pree Bright is an Atlanta-based,award-winning American photographer best known for her works Plastic Bodies,Suburbia,Young Americans and her most recent series #1960Now. Sheila is the author of #1960Now:Photographs of Civil Rights Activist and Black Lives Matter Protest published by Chronicle Books.
Samuel Sinyangwe is an American policy analyst and racial justice activist. Sinyangwe is a member of the Movement for Black Lives,the founder of Mapping Police Violence,a database of police killings in the United States and the Police Scorecard,a website with data on police use of force and accountability metrics on US police and sheriff's departments. Sinyangwe is also a co-founder of We the Protestors,a group of digital tools that include Campaign Zero,a policy platform to end police violence and a co-host of the Pod Save the People podcast,where he discusses the week's news with a panel of other activists.
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a coalition of more than 50 groups representing the interests of black communities across the United States. Members include the Black Lives Matter Network,the National Conference of Black Lawyers,and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. They are endorsed by groups such as Color of Change,Race Forward,Brooklyn Movement Center,PolicyLink,Million Women March Cleveland,and ONE DC,and the coalition receives communications and tactical support from an organization named Blackbird.
Wesley Lowery is an American journalist who has worked at both CBS News and The Washington Post. He was a lead on the Post's "Fatal Force" project that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016 as well as the author of They Can't Kill Us All:Ferguson,Baltimore,and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement. In 2017,he became a CNN political contributor and in 2020 was announced as a correspondent for 60 in 6,a short-form spinoff of 60 Minutes for Quibi. Lowery is a former Fellow at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service.
Whose Streets? is a 2017 American documentary film about the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson uprising. Directed by Sabaah Folayan and co-directed by Damon Davis,Whose Streets? premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival,then was released theatrically in August,2017,for the anniversary of Brown's death. It was a nominee for Critics' Choice and Gotham Independent Film awards.
Muhiyidin El Amin Moye,also known as Muhiyidin d'Baha,was a leading Black Lives Matter activist known nationally for crossing a yellow police tape line to snatch a Confederate battle flag from a demonstrator on live television in Charleston,South Carolina,in February 2017.
Mariame Kaba is an American activist,grassroots organizer,and educator who advocates for the abolition of the prison industrial complex,including all police. She is the author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us (2021). The Mariame Kaba Papers are held by the Chicago Public Library Special Collections.
The Black Lives Matter movement has been depicted and documented in various artistic forms and mediums including film,song,television,and the visual arts. In some instances this has taken place in the form of protest art. These cultural representations have also grown organically among artists who seek to partake in activist efforts in support or in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement. The themes conveyed in these artistic works address the history of racism and injustice toward people of color in the United States and typically express sentiments of anger and fear as well as solace and hope.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to promoting the Black Lives Matter movement. The organization is often mistaken for other organizations within the Black Lives Matter movement because it often solely employs the phrase "Black Lives Matter" as its name and it also owns the domain name "blacklivesmatter.com" as its official website. While BLMGN often simply calls itself "Black Lives Matter," it is not the sole organization within the broader Black Lives Matter social movement. It is,however,the largest and most well-funded,and it also claims to speak on behalf of the movement. Efforts which were started in late 2020 by its then Executive Director Patrisse Cullors began to centralize its operations.
The relationship between Russian intelligence services and the Black Lives Matter movement is a concern that emerged among scholars in the late 2010s who have researched Russian interference in United States elections. Russian operatives associated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA) have engaged in an online campaign to both encourage support of and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.
