User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
Portal maintenance status: (February 2019)
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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
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Image 1
Tishaura Oneda Jones (/tɪʃɑːrʌ/ tish-ARE-ə; born March 10, 1972) is an American politician who has served as the mayor of St. Louis, Missouri since April 2021. A member of the Missouri Democratic Party, Jones served from 2008 to 2013 in the Missouri House of Representatives; and as Treasurer of the City of St. Louis from 2013 to 2021.
Born in St. Louis to a former city comptroller, Jones studied at Hampton University in Virginia, returning to St. Louis upon graduating in 1994. Following a failed attempt to start a restaurant that left her bankrupt, she entered nursing, graduating from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health with a Master of Health Administration in 2001 and working for Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital for two years. (Full article...) -
Image 2On May 10, 2019, Ronald Hardin Greene, an unarmed 49-year-old Black man, was killed after being arrested by Louisiana State Police following a high-speed chase outside Monroe, Louisiana. During the arrest, he was stunned, punched, pepper sprayed and placed in a chokehold. He was also dragged face down while handcuffed and shackled, and he was left face down for at least nine minutes. At least six white troopers were involved in the arrest; five were criminally charged in December 2022.
When Greene's corpse was brought to the hospital, police told doctors that his car had run into a tree, a story a doctor said "does not add up", given the nature of Greene's injuries and the fact that there were two stun-gun probes lodged in his body; police later acknowledged that Greene had died during a struggle, but did not mention specifics about any use of force by officers. Although authorities refused to release body camera footage for two years, the Associated Press obtained and published a portion of it in May 2021. In 2022, a medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. (Full article...) -
Image 3On October 26, 2020, Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by Philadelphia police officers Sean Matarazzo and Thomas Munz at 6100 Locust Street in the Cobbs Creek section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two officers arrived in the area to respond to a domestic dispute. When they arrived, Wallace walked out of his house carrying a knife. The two officers backed away while telling him to drop the knife shortly before they each fired several rounds at Wallace, hitting him in the shoulder and chest. He later died from his wounds in the hospital. Wallace's family stated that Wallace was having a mental health crisis.
Wallace's killing gained attention after a cellphone video of the incident was posted to social media platforms, where it went viral. Protests against the killing occurred throughout Philadelphia in late October. Peaceful protests took place, as well as several protests which escalated into violence and looting, leading to arrests, injuries to police and protesters, deployment of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and a citywide curfew. (Full article...) -
Image 4Christopher Kapessa (6 January 2006 – 1 July 2019) was a Welsh boy who died at the age of 13 in the River Cynon on 1 July 2019. He was pushed from a height of 2.5 metres into the water and declared dead on the same day.
According to Kapessa's family and their representatives, the police investigation into the incident lasted around two days, the event declared "an accident" within 24 hours. A fortnight later, the anti-racist charity The Monitoring Group submitted a complaint to South Wales Police on behalf of Kapessa's mother Alina Joseph, alleging racial discrimination in the police response. In February 2020, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reported that there was "sufficient evidence" but not "public interest" for a manslaughter case against a child suspected to have pushed Kapessa into the river. A 2024 inquest found that it was a "dangerous prank" that caused Kapessa's death, but that the child who pushed him did not intend to kill him. The coroner found no evidence that the death was caused by racism. (Full article...) -
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During the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, a number of monuments and memorials associated with racial injustice were vandalized, destroyed or removed, or commitments to remove them were announced. This occurred mainly in the United States, but also in several other countries. Some of the monuments in question had been the subject of lengthy, years-long efforts to remove them, sometimes involving legislation and/or court proceedings. In some cases the removal was legal and official; in others, most notably in Alabama and North Carolina, laws prohibiting the removal of monuments were deliberately broken.
Initially, protesters targeted monuments related to the Confederate States of America. As the scope of the protests broadened to include other forms of systemic racism, many statues of other controversial figures such as Christopher Columbus, Junípero Serra, Juan de Oñate and Kit Carson were torn down or removed. Monuments to many other local figures connected with racism were also targeted by protestors.. Statues of American slave owners such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and Francis Scott Key were also vandalised or removed. According to the Huffington Post, by October 2020 over a hundred Confederate symbols had been "removed, relocated or renamed", based on data from the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Full article...) -
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Beginning in August 2016, some American athletes, most of whom are African American, have protested against systemic racism in the United States by kneeling on one knee while the U.S. national anthem is played. Beginning in 2017, many players also protested against President Donald Trump's criticisms of those involved in the protest, and some against Trump's policies during his time in office. Some observers have praised the players' social awareness. The act itself has become widely referred to as "taking the knee" or "taking a knee". Right-wing backlash to Black athletes kneeling often includes heavy criticism of the athletes for being "unpatriotic"; internet backlash against the players has raised questions over their right to freedom of speech.
The protests began in the National Football League (NFL) after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and later knelt during the anthem, before his team's preseason games of 2016. Throughout the following seasons, members of various NFL and other sports teams have engaged in similar silent protests. On September 24, 2017, the NFL protests became more widespread when over 200 players sat or knelt in reaction to Trump's call for owners to "fire" the protesting players. (Full article...) -
Image 7The death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Indigenous-Ukrainian-Black Canadian woman, occurred in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 27, 2020. Responding to multiple 911 calls from Korchinski-Paquet, her mother, and her brother, for a domestic disturbance involving punches, thrown bottles, and knives, police attended her apartment. Subsequent to the arrival of police, Korchinski-Paquet fell to the ground 24 storeys below, and died at the scene. Her family accused the Toronto Police Service of having played a role in her death, which led to a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation. The SIU announced in late August 2020 it had cleared all police officers of wrongdoing and found no evidence of police involvement in her death.
Korchinski-Paquet's death inspired a number of protests in Canada against police involvement in her death and other issues of anti-black and anti-Indigenous sentiment. These Toronto protests occurred around the same time as the George Floyd protests. (Full article...) -
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In May 2020, a young transgender woman of color named Nina Pop was stabbed to death in her own Missouri apartment.
The Human Rights Campaign stated that her death is at least the 10th violent death of an American transgender person or gender non-conforming person in 2020. (Full article...) -
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Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 1st congressional district, since 2021. The district includes all of the city of St. Louis and most of northern St. Louis County.
A member of the Democratic Party, on August 4, 2020, Bush defeated 10-term incumbent Lacy Clay in a 2020 U.S. House of Representatives primary election largely viewed as a historic upset, advancing to the November general election in a solidly Democratic congressional district. Bush is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri. She previously ran in the Democratic primary for the district in 2018 and the 2016 U.S. Senate election in Missouri. She was featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, which covered her first primary challenge to Clay. Bush is a member of The Squad in the House of Representatives. (Full article...) -
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The murder of Renisha Marie McBride (April 11, 1994 –November 2, 2013), a 19-year-old African American teenager, occurred on November 2, 2013, in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, United States. Renisha McBride crashed her car while intoxicated at a street in Detroit, and then walked to a neighborhood in Dearborn Heights where she knocked on the door of a house. The homeowner, 54-year-old Theodore Wafer, shot McBride with a shotgun. Wafer contended that the shooting was accidental and that he thought his home was being broken into after he heard her banging on his door at 4:42 in the morning.
Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder on August 7, 2014, and received a sentence of 17 to 32 years in prison. His sentence was re-affirmed in 2022. (Full article...) -
Image 11On May 1, 2023, Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old black man who was homeless, was killed by Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old white former Marine. Penny placed Neely in an extended chokehold while riding the subway in Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Neely boarded the train at the Second Avenue station just before it departed and reportedly began screaming that he was hungry, needed a job, was not afraid of going to prison, and was ready to die. Freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez, who witnessed the incident, said that Neely removed his jacket and threw it violently to the floor, resulting in other passengers moving away from him. Penny then approached Neely from behind and put him in a chokehold. (Full article...) -
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On May 27, 2020, after 11 a.m., a 38-year-old African-American transgender man, Tony McDade, was fatally shot in the Leon Arms apartment complex by an officer of the Tallahassee Police Department, following the fatal stabbing of Malik Jackson on nearby Saxon Street. Early reports of the incident misgendered McDade as a "woman", and on May 28, the police department described McDade as a woman who "identified as a man". On September 3, a Leon County grand jury found that the police use of force against McDade was justified. Police body camera showing McDade pointing a firearm at one of the police officers before being shot was also released.
McDade was a suspect in Jackson's fatal stabbing and police stated that McDade pointed a gun at police and that a bloody knife was found at the scene. Some witnesses have contradicted statements by the Police Department that McDade was armed with a gun. The officer also allegedly called McDade the N-word before shooting and killing him. This was later proven false through body camera footage. (Full article...) -
Image 13
"Black Parade" is a song by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. It was produced by Beyoncé and Derek Dixie in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed it. The song was surprise released on June 19, 2020, also referred to as Juneteenth, a day commemorating the abolishment of slavery in the United States. The song serves as a celebration of Black culture and the support of Black activism. While initially a stand-alone single, an extended version of the song was used in the end credits of Beyoncé's film Black Is King and included in the accompanying deluxe edition of The Lion King: The Gift, both released on July 31, 2020.
"Black Parade" received critical acclaim upon release, with praise for its lyrical references to black history, culture, pride and activism, as well as for Beyoncé's vocal performance. Critics noted the track's ability to act as a condemnation of racism and a call to action for protestors against police brutality, while also serving as an uplifting celebration of black culture. The release of the song caused a significant rise in sales for several black-owned small businesses. It was the most nominated song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, with four nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song won Best R&B Performance, which was Beyoncé's 28th Grammy win, making her the most awarded singer and female artist in Grammy history. (Full article...) -
Image 14
The killing of Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. occurred on March 6, 2015, in Madison, Wisconsin. Robinson, an unarmed 19-year-old man, was fatally shot by Madison police officer Matthew Kenny during a "check-person" call. Kenny was responding to dispatch reports that Robinson was jumping in front of cars and acting erratically, and that he had harmed someone in an apartment. On May 12, 2015, the shooting was determined to be justified self-defense by the Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne. The death was protested by the Black Lives Matter movement; Robinson was biracial, with a black father and a white mother. (Full article...) -
Image 15
Protests and civil disorder occurred in reaction to the killing of Daunte Wright on April 11, 2021. Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, United States. Protests that first began in Brooklyn Center spread to other locations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and then to other cities in the United States. Several nights of civil disorder in Brooklyn Center and adjacent cities resulted in sporadic looting and damage to a few hundred properties, including four businesses that were set on fire.
Wright's death came during a prolonged period of unrest in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over police brutality and racial injustice, notably due to the murder of George Floyd and the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who murdered Floyd. Protesters demanded justice for Wright's death and made several demands of public officials, including a more severe murder charge for Potter, an independent investigation of the shooting, and enactment of police reform measures. (Full article...) -
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Rekia Boyd was a 22-year-old black American woman who was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois by Dante Servin, an off-duty Hispanic Chicago police detective, on March 21, 2012. (Full article...) -
Image 173 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, also known as 3 1/2 Minutes, is a 2015 American documentary film written and directed by Marc Silver. The film is based on the events surrounding the 2012 murder of Jordan Russell Davis and examines the shooting itself, as well as the subsequent trial, media coverage and protests that resulted from the shooting.
The film premiered under its original title 3 1/2 Minutes at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015, later winning the Special Jury Prize for Social Impact. The film was then bought by HBO Documentary Films, and premiered on HBO on November 23, 2015. On December 1, it was one of 15 films shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the 2016 89th Academy Awards. (Full article...) -
Image 18
Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot on September 20, 2016, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Brentley Vinson, an African-American city police officer. It sparked both peaceful and violent protests led by Black Lives Matter in Charlotte.
The shooting prompted investigations by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice. As is customary for the department, Vinson was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. In November 2016, county prosecutors decided not to charge Vinson, concluding that the shooting was justified. (Full article...) -
Image 19Jen Reid (born 2 November 1970) is a British Black Lives Matter activist from Bristol. After the statue of Edward Colston was pushed into Bristol Harbour, Reid stood on the empty plinth and made a Black Power salute. This pose was then recreated in the sculpture A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020. (Full article...)
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Image 20Adama Traoré (French pronunciation: [adama tʁaɔʁe]; 19 July 1992 – 19 July 2016) was a black French man who died in custody after being restrained and apprehended by police. His death triggered riots and protests against police brutality in France, with new resurgence and resonance since the murder of George Floyd in the United States that some perceived as being under similar circumstances in 2020.
Of Malian descent, Traoré was born in Val-d'Oise. (Full article...) -
Image 21On October 3, 2013, in Washington, D.C., Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers after attempting to drive through a White House security checkpoint in her black Infiniti G37 coupe. She struck a U.S. Secret Service officer, and was chased by the Secret Service to the United States Capitol where she was shot five times in the back, including one shot which hit the left side of the back of her head. A young child, Carey's daughter, was found unharmed in the car. (Full article...)
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Image 22In the United States, use of deadly force by police has been a high-profile and contentious issue. In 2022, 1,096 people were killed by police shootings according to The Washington Post, while according to the "Mapping Police Violence" (MPV) project, 1,176 people were killed by police in total. MPV documented 1,213 killings by police for 2023.
A lack of reliable data has made conclusions about race and policing difficult. Several non-government and crowdsourcing projects have been started to address this lack of reliable data. Research has provided mixed results on the extent of racial bias in the police use of deadly force, with some studies finding no racial bias, while other studies conclude there is racial bias in the use of deadly force. (Full article...) -
Image 23
The shooting of Antonio Martin occurred on December 23, 2014, in Berkeley, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Martin, an 18-year-old black male, was fatally shot by a white Berkeley police officer when Martin pulled a gun on him. The shooting sparked protests in the St. Louis area and other cities in the U.S. The shooting elicited comparison to the earlier shooting death of Michael Brown two miles away in Ferguson, Missouri. (Full article...) -
Image 24On July 18, 2013, Tyrone West, a 44-year-old African American male, was pursued by two officers of the Baltimore Police Department after he fled a traffic stop during which cocaine was allegedly found. The cocaine later went missing in police possession after a subpoena was issued. West was on parole at the time of this incident with an extensive criminal record including assault, resisting arrest, and attempted first-degree murder. West ultimately died during the scuffle with police and various medical experts have given conflicting assessments of contributing factors including cardiac arrhythmia, dehydration, positional asphyxia, and extreme environmental temperatures.
The incident fueled tension in the North Baltimore community, playing a contributing factor in the eventual Baltimore riots of 2015. The death of West drew attention from notable African American leaders including U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and celebrity Charles Barkley. (Full article...) -
Image 25On December 22, 2020, 47-year-old Andre Hill was shot and killed by Officer Adam Coy of the Columbus Division of Police in Columbus, Ohio. Coy had been called to the neighborhood in response to a non-emergency call from a neighbor who reportedly witnessed someone sit in an SUV and turn the car on and off. Hill was leaving a friend's house when Coy confronted and shot him. Hill was unarmed, and was holding a smartphone. Coy was fired from the Columbus Police less than a week later.
The shooting was the second killing by police in Columbus in December 2020, following the shooting of Casey Goodson on December 4 by a Franklin County Sheriff's deputy. (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?
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Selected images
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Image 2Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 3Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7An 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)
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Image 8Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 9The 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)
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Image 10One-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)
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Image 12Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 13Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 17Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 18A 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)
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Image 19Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 22Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 23A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 24George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 25Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 26Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 27Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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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)
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Image 29Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 32Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, 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)
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