Black Lives Matter
SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-02
BLM is a member organization of the Movement for Black Lives established to respond to sustained and increasingly visible violence against black communities in the U.S. and globally.
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Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an organized movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality against African-American people. An organization known simply as Black Lives Matter exists as a decentralized network with over 30 chapters in the United States and sister organizations worldwide while a larger Black Lives Matter movement exists consisting of various separate like-minded organizations such as Dream Defenders and Assata's Daughters. The broader movement and its related organizations typically advocate against police violence towards black people, as well as for various other policy changes considered to be related to black liberation.
In 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in February 2012. The movement became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans: Michael Brown-resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, a city near St. Louis-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 and/or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election. The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016. The overall Black Lives Matter movement is a decentralized network and has no formal hierarchy.
The movement returned to national headlines and gained further international attention during the global George Floyd protests in 2020 following Floyd's death by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Structure and organization
Loose structure
The phrase "Black Lives Matter" can refer to a Twitter hashtag, a slogan, a social movement, or a loose confederation of groups advocating for racial justice. As a movement, Black Lives Matter is decentralized, and leaders have emphasized the importance of local organizing over national leadership. Activist DeRay McKesson has commented that the movement "encompasses all who publicly declare that black lives matter and devote their time and energy accordingly."
In 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter Network. Alicia Garza described the network as an online platform that existed to provide activists with a shared set of principles and goals. Local Black Lives Matter chapters are asked to commit to the organization's list of guiding principles but operate without a central structure or hierarchy. Alicia Garza has commented that the Network was not interested in "policing who is and who is not part of the movement." Currently, there are approximately 16 Black Lives Matter chapters in the U.S. and Canada.
Notable Black Lives Matter activists include co-founder of the Seattle Black Lives Matter chapter Marissa Johnson, lawyer and president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP Nekima Levy-Pounds.
The loose structure of Black Lives Matter has contributed to confusion in the press and among activists, as actions or statements from chapters or individuals are sometimes attributed to "Black Lives Matter" as a whole. Matt Pearce, writing for the Los Angeles Times, commented that "the words could be serving as a political rallying cry or referring to the activist organization. Or it could be the fuzzily applied label used to describe a wide range of protests and conversations focused on racial inequality."
A corporation named "Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc." was incorporated in the State of Delaware on October 16, 2017. That corporation has entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with Thousand Currents. In accordance with the agreement, Thousand Currents "provides the legal and administrative framework to enable BLM to fulfill its mission."
BLMF
A separate organization based in Santa Clarita, California, founded by Robert Ray Barnes named the "Black Lives Matter Foundation" (BLMF) has a 501(c)(3) federal income tax exemption. It reports that its "mission is to help survivors and families that have suffered from the loss of a relative or loved one as a result of an unjust or questionable police shooting, and use our unique and creative ideas to help bring the police and the community closer together to save lives." Representatives of the BLM Network have disavowed any connection to BLMF, and each organization claims that their name and concept was stolen by the other. Nonetheless, due to its 501(c)(3) status, many corporations and individuals pledged donations to BLMF through platforms such as Benevity believing it to be part of the better-known movement, although much of the funds raised was not dispersed after the confusion was noted.
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COMMENTARY (BuriedTruth). Note also the following article which mentions another BLM organization -- independent from the above -- that also uses the "BLMF" moniker.
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That entity, BLMF: Black-Led Movement Fund is different that the aforementioned (this article) BLMF: Black Lives Matter Foundation. ... All of this reeks of the clouding and confusing the "Black Lives Matter" ecosystem by wealthy, malfeasant "influencers" (George Soros; others) -- each with their own agenda.
"... the [BLMF: Black-Led Movement Fund] foundations have aligned themselves with the staunch left-wing platform of the Movement for Black Lives, which unveiled a policy agenda shortly after the fund was announced accusing Israel of being an "apartheid state" guilty of "genocide." ...
[2016-08-16]: Black Lives Matter cashes in with $100 million from liberal foundations
...The Ford Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy recently announced the formation of the Black-Led Movement Fund [BLMF], a six-year pooled donor campaign aimed at raising $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives coalition. ...
Guiding principles
According to the Black Lives Matter website, there are thirteen guiding principles that should apply to those who choose to become involved under the Black Lives Matter banner, among them Diversity, Globalism, Empathy, Restorative justice and Intergenerationality.
Broader movement
Concurrently, a broader movement involving several other organizations and activists emerged under the banner of "Black Lives Matter" as well. For example, BLM is a member organization of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), established to respond to sustained and increasingly visible violence against black communities in the U.S. and globally. In 2015 Johnetta Elzie, DeRay Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, and Samuel Sinyangwe, initiated Campaign Zero, aimed at promoting policy reforms to end police brutality. The campaign released a ten-point plan for reforms to policing, with recommendations including: ending broken windows policing, increasing community oversight of police departments, and creating stricter guidelines for the use of force. New York Times reporter John Eligon reported that some activists had expressed concerns that the campaign was overly focused on legislative remedies for police violence.
Funding of the movement
Politico reported in 2015 that the Democracy Alliance, a gathering of Democratic-Party donors, planned to meet with leaders of several groups who were endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, including the Black Youth Project 100, the Black Civic Engagement Fund, the Center for Popular Democracy, Color of Change and the Advancement Project. According to Politico, the donor coalition named Solidaire, focussing on "movement building" and led by Texas oil fortune heir Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a member of the Democracy Alliance, had donated more than 200,000 dollars to the BLM movement by 2015. According to Solidaire's website, donations went to the "Black Lives Matter Network" and the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) "Convening" in 2015, and to M4BL "National Direct Action" in 2016.
In 2016, the Ford Foundation announced plans to fund M4BL in a "six-year investments" plan, further partnering up with the philanthropic intermediary Borealis Philanthropy, the Movement Strategy Center, and Benedict Consulting to found the Black-led Movement Fund. Borealis Philanthropy lists the "Black Lives Matter Global Network" among other organizations among its grantees.
The sum donated by the Ford Foundation and the other donors to M4BL was reported as 100 million dollars by the Washington Times in 2016. Another donation of 33 million dollars to M4BL was reportedly issued by George Soros' Open Society Foundations. Further donors for the same cause, according to the statement published by the Ford Foundation, appear to be the Hill-Snowden Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Neighborhood Funders Group / Funders for Justice, and Anonymous Donors among others.
Policy demands
In 2016, Black Lives Matter and a coalition of 60 organizations affiliated with BLM called for decarceration in the United States, reparations for slavery in the United States, an end to mass surveillance, investment in public education, not incarceration, and community control of the police: empowering residents in communities of color to hire and fire police officers and issue subpoenas, decide disciplinary consequences and exercise control over city funding of police.
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Additional Reading
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