User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
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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. As of 2021[update], 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
In the United States, "defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing social issues, like poverty, homelessness, and mental disorders. Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment, community health, education, and other programs.
The "defund the police" slogan became common during the George Floyd protests starting in May 2020. According to Jenna Wortham and Matthew Yglesias, the slogan was popularized by the Black Visions Collective shortly after the murder of George Floyd. (Full article...) -
Image 2Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) is an African American youth organization in the United States. Its activities include community organizing, voter mobilization, and other social justice campaigns focused on black, feminist, and queer issues. The national director is D'Atra "Dee Dee" Jackson.
BYP100 was founded in 2013, and was motivated by the response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in his trial for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Founding members include Charlene Carruthers. (Full article...) -
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Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.
Several protests were held in reaction to the shooting. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on most no-knock warrants on February 4. Multiple reviews of the no-knock warrant policy were announced, including by the Minneapolis City Council Policy and Government Oversight Committee and the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review, as well as racial justice activist DeRay Mckesson and professor of police studies Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University in coordination with the city. On April 8, Minneapolis banned "no knock" warrants in a new policy. (Full article...) -
Image 4On June 27, 2022, at approximately 12:30 a.m., Akron, Ohio, police officers shot Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old American from Akron. Following a traffic stop and car chase, footage showed an officer saying that Walker’s car is slowing down, having reached speeds of more than 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) in residential neighborhoods. Seconds later, Walker, wearing a ski mask, exited the vehicle and began to flee on foot. Officers pursued on foot and fired more than 90 times at Walker. Autopsy results showed that Walker's body was hit by more than 46 bullets.
Walker was not carrying a weapon when killed. A handgun was later found in Walker's car, and officers reported a firearm being discharged during the preceding car chase. Police said a bullet casing consistent with the recovered Glock handgun (which Walker purchased from a gun store in Akron approximately a week before his death) was found in the area where they say a shot was fired (the southbound entrance ramp to State Route 8 at Tallmadge Avenue). (Full article...) -
Image 5Local protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area quickly spread nationwide in more than 2,000 cities and towns, as well as over 60 countries internationally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Minneapolis, destruction of property began on May 26, 2020, with the protests involving vandalism and arson. Demonstrations in many other cities also descended into riots and widespread looting. There was police brutality against protesters and journalists. Property damage estimates resulting from arson, vandalism and looting ranged from $1 to $2 billion, eclipsing the highest inflation adjusted totals for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The majority of the George Floyd protests, a series of protests and unrest which began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 26, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, were peaceful; an estimated 93%–96.3% of demonstrations were peaceful and nondestructive, involving no injuries or no property damage. However, police made arrests in about 5% of protest events (deploying chemical irritants in 2.5% of events); 3.7% of protest events were associated with property damage or vandalism (including damages by persons not involved in the actual demonstration); and protesters or bystanders were injured or killed in 1.6% of events. Clashes and other forms of violence were at various times initiated by protestors, by counterprotestors, and by police, and were usually driven by opportunistic criminals rather than organized extremist groups. (Full article...) -
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Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to be used as slang for 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...) -
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Marissa Johnson (born 1990/1991) is an activist who attained notoriety when she interrupted U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at an August 2015 rally in Seattle. Her activism has been associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. She is a founder of a Seattle-based justice group called Outside Agitators 206, which was disbanded when she became a cofounder of the Seattle chapter of Black Lives Matter around September 2015. (Full article...) -
Image 8On 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 9"Lavender (Nightfall Remix)" is a 2017 song by American rapper Snoop Dogg. It is a remixed version of the BadBadNotGood (BBNG) song "Lavender" with lyrics added which addressed the issue of police brutality in the United States. It was released with a music video which caused some controversy because of a scene depicting a mock assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump. The song was included in Snoop's 2017 album Neva Left. (Full article...)
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"Cop vs. Phone Girl" is a song by American rock band Third Eye Blind from their second extended play, We Are Drugs (2016). It was released as the lead single from the extended play on July 25, 2016, by MegaForce Records. The song addresses the issues of racism and police brutality, specifically focusing on a 2015 incident at South Carolina's Spring Valley High School.
Following a viral performance near the Republican National Convention, the band was inspired to release a political song. Frontman Stephan Jenkins helmed the writing and production of the song, with recording and mixing taking place in Texas in the span of a week. "Cop vs. Phone Girl" received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised the message of song but criticized the blunt lyrics. (Full article...) -
Image 11We Stand With You is a 2020 mural of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor by artist Christian Grijalva, installed in Portland, Oregon. (Full article...)
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On October 16, 2023, Leonard Cure, a 53-year-old black American man, was fatally shot during a physical struggle by Sheriff's Deputy Buck Aldridge in Camden County, Georgia, after being pulled over for speeding. Cure had been exonerated in 2020 after being wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in Florida in 2003. (Full article...) -
Image 13Dijon Kizzee (February 5, 1991 – August 31, 2020), an African-American man, was shot and killed in the Los Angeles County community of Westmont on August 31, 2020, by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). For days, protesters gathered outside the South Los Angeles sheriff's station. By September 6, those demonstrations had escalated to clashes, with deputies firing projectiles and tear gas at the crowds and arresting 35 people over four nights of unrest. (Full article...)
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Image 14The Mothers of Gynecology Movement sprang out of criticism of 19th century American gynecologist J. Marion Sims' experimental surgeries on enslaved Black women who were unable to consent to their surgeries. Their surgeries were often performed without anesthesia. His work has been described in the late 20th century as an example of racism in the medical profession. Though Sims had many patients, there are only three known patients of his: Anarcha Westcott, and two lesser known women, Lucy and Betsey, which have been described as the "mothers of gynecology" in the United States, to demonstrate the contributions of their experiences to modern medicine.
In 2017, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a commission to evaluate a statue of J. Marion Sims in Central Park. During the 90-day evaluation period, author J.C. Hallman's essay about the Sims monument, "Monumental Error", appeared on the cover of Harper's Magazine. Hallman's essay was published during the time of the New York City Public Design Commission held public forums to evaluate monuments city-wide. The piece contributed to the greater, nationwide debate about the role of Confederate monuments. The article was distributed to the entire commission. The Sims statue was voted out by unanimous decision and removed in April 2018. (Full article...) -
Image 15Kalief Browder (May 25, 1993 – June 6, 2015) was an African American youth from The Bronx, New York, who was held at the Rikers Island jail complex, without trial, between 2010 and 2013 for allegedly stealing a backpack containing valuables. During his imprisonment, Browder was kept in solitary confinement for 800 days.
Two years after his release, Browder hanged himself at his parents' home. His case has been cited by activists campaigning for reform of the New York City criminal justice system and has attracted widespread attention in the years following his death. In 2017, Jay-Z produced a television documentary mini-series titled Time: The Kalief Browder Story. In January 2019, New York City settled a civil lawsuit with the Browder family for $3.3 million. (Full article...) -
Image 16Colin in Black & White is an American drama television limited series that premiered on Netflix on October 29, 2021.
In advance of the series premiere, the pilot episode received a preview screening in the Primetime program at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. (Full article...) -
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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...) -
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A Black Lives Matter mural was painted outside Seattle City Hall, in the U.S. state of Washington, in 2021. (Full article...) -
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A "Black Lives Matter" street mural has been painted in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Full article...) -
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On March 11, 2016, the Donald Trump presidential campaign canceled a planned rally at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), in Chicago, Illinois, citing "growing safety concerns" due to the presence of thousands of protesters inside and outside his rally.
Thousands of anti-Trump demonstrators responding to civic leaders' and social media calls to shut the rally down had gathered outside the arena, and several hundred more filled seating areas within the UIC Pavilion, where the rally was to take place. When the Trump campaign announced that the rally would not take place, there was a great deal of shouting and a few small scuffles between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters. (Full article...) -
Image 21"Formation" is a song by American singer Beyoncé. It was the lead single for her sixth studio album Lemonade (2016). It was written by Beyoncé, Mike Will Made It, Swae Lee, and Pluss, and produced by the former two. It was surprise-released on February 6, 2016, through Parkwood Entertainment. "Formation" is an R&B song with trap and bounce influences, in which Beyoncé celebrates her culture, identity and success as a black woman from the Southern United States.
The song received widespread acclaim upon release, with particular praise for the lyrical references, as well as for the production and vocal performance. It was critics' top song of 2016, being named the best song of the year by publications including Rolling Stone, Time, NPR, and Complex. In 2019, it was named the best song of the decade (2010s) by publications including Essence and Parade. "Formation" was also Google's most searched song of 2016. "Formation" won all six of its nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards, and was nominated for three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Music Video, of which it won the latter award. (Full article...) -
Image 22The Hate U Give is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old African-American girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city. Starr becomes entangled in a national news story after she witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. She speaks up about the shooting in increasingly public ways, and social tensions culminate in a riot after a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer for the shooting.
The Hate U Give was published on February 28, 2017, by HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray, which had won a bidding war for the rights to the novel. The book was a commercial success, debuting at number one on The New York Times young adult best-seller list, where it remained for 50 weeks. It won several awards and received critical praise for Thomas's writing and timely subject matter. In writing the novel, Thomas attempted to expand readers' understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as difficulties faced by black Americans who employ code switching. These themes, as well as the vulgar language, attracted some controversy and caused the book to be one of the most challenged books of 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 according to the American Library Association. (Full article...) -
Image 23In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle of federal constitutional law that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from lawsuits for damages unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known". It is comparable to sovereign immunity, though it protects government employees rather than the government itself. It is less strict than absolute immunity, by protecting officials who "make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions", extending to "all [officials] but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law". Qualified immunity applies only to government officials in civil litigation, and does not protect the government itself from suits arising from officials' actions.
The U.S. Supreme Court first introduced the qualified immunity doctrine in Pierson v. Ray (1967), a case litigated during the height of the civil rights movement. It is stated to have been originally introduced with the rationale of protecting law enforcement officials from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in cases where they acted in good faith in unclear legal situations. Starting around 2005, courts increasingly applied the doctrine to cases involving the use of excessive or deadly force by police, leading to widespread criticism that it "has become a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights" (as summarized in a 2020 Reuters report). (Full article...) -
Image 24
The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.
For months after the shooting, there were demands from Taylor's family, the family's attorneys, members of the local community, and protesters worldwide that the officers involved in the shooting be fired and criminally charged. On September 23, 2020, a state grand jury indicted Brett Hankison, one of the three officers who shot during the incident, on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for endangering Taylor's neighbors with his shots. He was later acquitted. On August 4, 2022, Hankison and three other officers were federally charged with violating Taylor's civil rights, unlawful conspiracy, obstruction and unconstitutional use of force. (Full article...) -
Image 25Police perjury, sometimes euphemistically called "testilying", is the act of a police officer knowingly giving false testimony. It is typically used in a criminal trial to "make the case" against defendants believed by the police to be guilty when irregularities during the suspects' arrest or search threaten to result in their acquittal. It also can be extended to encompass substantive misstatements of fact to convict those whom the police believe to be guilty, procedural misstatements to "justify" a search and seizure, or even the inclusion of statements to frame an innocent citizen. More generically, it has been said to be "[l]ying under oath, especially by a police officer, to help get a conviction." (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 1Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 3Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 8Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 10Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 11Al 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 12Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 14"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 15Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16The 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 18Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 19Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 22Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 23An 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 25Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 26One-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 27A 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 29Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30A 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 31Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 32Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 33"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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