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 1The relationship between Russian intelligence services and the Black Lives Matter movement is a concern that emerged among scholars[who?] 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. (Full article...)
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Image 2On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia. Three white men, who later claimed to police that they assumed he was a burglar, pursued Arbery in their trucks for several minutes, using the vehicles to block his path as he tried to run away. Two of the men, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, were armed in one vehicle. Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, was in another vehicle. After overtaking Arbery, Travis exited his truck, pointing his weapon at Arbery. Arbery approached Travis and a physical altercation ensued, resulting in Travis fatally shooting Arbery. Bryan recorded this confrontation and Arbery's murder on his cell phone.
Members of the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) arrived on the scene soon after the shooting; due to Gregory McMichael's background in civil service, the responding officer referred to him on a first-name basis and no questions as to the legality of the shooting nor the validity of self-defense claims were made. Arbery was still alive at the time officers arrived on the scene. No arrests were made for more than two months.
The GCPD said the Brunswick District Attorney's Office first advised them to make no arrests, then Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill twice advised the GCPD to make no arrests, once before he was officially assigned to the case, and once while announcing his intention to recuse himself due to a conflict of interest. At the behest of Gregory McMichael, a local attorney provided Bryan's video to local radio station WGIG, which published the video on May 5. The video went viral on YouTube and Twitter. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) arrested the McMichaels on May 7 and Bryan on May 21, charging them with felony murder and other crimes. (Full article...) -
Image 3"I Can't Breathe" is a song by H.E.R. released on June 19, 2020. It was written by H.E.R., D'Mile and Tiara Thomas and produced by D'Mile. It reached number 20 on Billboard's Hot R&B Songs. The song won Song of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, serving as H.E.R.'s first ever win in this category. (Full article...)
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Image 4The shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, two Black American individuals, occurred in East Cleveland, Ohio on November 29, 2012, at the conclusion of a 22-minute police chase which started in downtown Cleveland, when police erroneously claimed shots were fired at them as Russell and Williams drove by a squad car; the result of the shots was their vehicle's exhaust pipe backfiring.
Over 60 officers participated in a 23-mile police chase that ended in Russell and Williams' vehicle being surrounded. Thirteen police officers surrounding the vehicle fired at Russell and Williams, who are unarmed, over 137 times while they were in their car at a parking lot of a middle school, killing both. In May 2014, one of the officers involved, Michael Brelo, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter, and was acquitted by a Cuyahoga County judge of the charges on May 23, 2015. (Full article...) -
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Linda Sarsour (born 1980) is an American political activist. She was co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women's March. She is also a former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She and her Women's March co-chairs were profiled in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2017.
A Muslim of Palestinian descent, Sarsour first gained attention for protesting police surveillance of American Muslims, later becoming involved in other civil rights issues such as police brutality, feminism, immigration policy, and mass incarceration. She has also organized Black Lives Matter demonstrations and was the lead plaintiff in a suit challenging the legality of the Trump travel ban. (Full article...) -
Image 6Darnella Frazier (born March 23, 2003) is an American woman who recorded the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, posting her video on Facebook and Instagram. The video undermined the initial account of Floyd's death by the Minneapolis Police Department, and served as evidence leading to criminal charges against four police officers. Frazier testified during the trial, which ended with the conviction of Derek Chauvin on murder charges, and the convictions of the other three officers on manslaughter. She received a special award and citation from the Pulitzer Prize board in 2021. (Full article...)
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Image 7On April 20, 2021, Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl, was fatally shot by police officer Nicholas Reardon in southeast Columbus, Ohio. Released body camera and security camera footage show Bryant brandishing a knife and charging two women consecutively, leading up to the moment Officer Reardon fired four shots; Bryant was struck at least once. Bryant immediately collapsed and was unresponsive. Reardon and other officers on the scene administered first aid, and she was transported to the hospital in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. Reactions from the public included both support of the actions of the officer and protests against the killing. The case was investigated by state authorities and then referred to local authorities. The case went to a grand jury and on March 11, 2022, it declined to charge Reardon. Her shooting, which prevented her from stabbing another girl, was later deemed a justifiable homicide. (Full article...)
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Image 88 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...)
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Image 9"Rockstar" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American rapper DaBaby, featuring fellow American rapper Roddy Ricch. The song was released on April 17, 2020, as the second single from DaBaby's third studio album Blame It on Baby (2020). It was written by the two rappers. "Rockstar" spent seven non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Outside of the United States, "Rockstar" topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Its music video is set in a zombie apocalypse.
On June 12, 2020, DaBaby released a "BLM (Black Lives Matter) remix" of "Rockstar", which replaces the intro with an extra verse from him, before the rest of the song, regarding the George Floyd protests that started in May 2020, and his own experience with police abuse. The song received nominations for Record of the Year, Best Melodic Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. (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...) -
Image 11The Ferguson effect is an increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police. The Ferguson effect was first proposed after police saw an increase in violence following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The term was coined by Doyle Sam Dotson III, the chief of the St. Louis police, to account for an increased murder rate in some U.S. cities following the Ferguson unrest. Whether the Ferguson effect really exists is subject of discussions with many published studies reporting contradicting findings concerning whether there is a change in crime rates, number of 911 calls, homicides, and proactive policing. Furthermore, the effect and influence of the portrayal of police brutality in the media is also contested. (Full article...)
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Image 12"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...) -
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Black Guns Matter is an organization aimed at educating African Americans about gun culture in the United States, primarily around defending Second Amendment rights. The organization is led by Maj Toure, who founded it in 2016. Black Guns Matter has hosted workshops in multiple cities to teach the basics of firearm safety, U.S. gun laws, and conflict resolution. (Full article...) -
Image 14The Hate U Give is a 2018 American coming-of-age teen drama film produced and directed by George Tillman Jr. from a screenplay by Audrey Wells (who died the day before the film's release), based on the 2017 young adult novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. The film was produced by Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Robert Teitel and Tillman Jr., and stars Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Lamar Johnson, KJ Apa, Sabrina Carpenter, Common, and Anthony Mackie, and follows the fallout after a high school student witnesses a police shooting.
The project was announced on March 23, 2016, and casting took place during August and September 2017. Principal photography began on September 12, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia. On February 5, 2018, it was announced that Kian Lawley's role was recast after a video of his use of racially offensive slurs resurfaced. A month later, it was announced that Lawley had been replaced by Apa. (Full article...) -
Image 15Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's feature directorial debut, and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale district station in Oakland, California. The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Grant, with Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray playing the two BART police officers involved in Grant's death, although their names were changed for the film. Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly, and Octavia Spencer also star.
The film debuted under its original title, Fruitvale, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, and was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the award for Best First Film. It received critical acclaim, and was released in theaters on July 12, 2013, grossing over $17 million against its $900,000 budget. (Full article...) -
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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...) -
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On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old male friend Dorian Johnson. Wilson, a white male Ferguson police officer, said that an altercation ensued when Brown attacked him in his police vehicle for control of Wilson's service pistol. The struggle continued until the pistol fired. Johnson said that Wilson initiated a confrontation by grabbing Brown by the neck through Wilson's patrol car window, threatening him and then shooting at him. At this point, both Wilson and Johnson state that Brown and Johnson fled, with Wilson pursuing Brown shortly thereafter. Wilson stated that Brown stopped and charged him after a short pursuit. Johnson contradicted this account, stating that Brown turned around with his hands raised after Wilson shot at his back. According to Johnson, Wilson then shot Brown multiple times until Brown fell to the ground. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve bullets, including twice during the struggle in the car. Brown was struck six times, all in the front of his body. (Full article...) -
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Ijeoma Oluo (/iˈdʒoʊmə oʊˈluːoʊ/; born 1980) is an American writer. She is the author of So You Want to Talk About Race and has written for The Guardian, Jezebel, The Stranger, Medium, and The Establishment, where she was also an editor-at-large.
Born in Denton, Texas, and based in Seattle, Washington, in 2015, Oluo was named one of the most influential people in Seattle, and in 2018, she was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle. Her writing covers racism, misogynoir, intersectionality, online harassment, the Black Lives Matter movement, economics, parenting, feminism, and social justice. (Full article...) -
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Janaya Khan is a social activist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Khan is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto as well as an international ambassador for the Black Lives Matter Network. Much of their work analyzes intersectional topics including the Black Lives Matter movement, queer theory, Black feminism, and organized protest strategies. (Full article...) -
Image 20On April 29, 2017, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old African-American boy, was murdered by police officer Roy Oliver in Balch Springs, Texas, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Edwards was shot in the back of the head while riding in the front passenger's seat of a vehicle driving away from officers that attempted to stop it. He was unarmed during the encounter.
Oliver was fired from the department and arrested on May 5, 2017. On August 28, 2018, he was found guilty of murder. On August 29, 2018, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Full article...) -
Image 21Kalief 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...) -
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On November 11, 2018, Jemel Roberson, a 26-year-old security guard for Manny's Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Illinois, was fatally shot by Ian Covey, a Midlothian police officer responding to a call of shots fired at the bar. Roberson, an African American, was working for the bar as a security guard when four people were shot by a gunman. After Roberson subdued and pinned the shooter to the ground, he was shot by a Midlothian police officer arriving at the scene.
Covey was placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting was investigated. Witnesses stated that Roberson was wearing a vest that had the word "SECURITY" printed on it, while an Illinois State Police (ISP) preliminary investigation stated he was wearing plain black clothing with no markings identifying him as security. The ISP report stated the Midlothian officer gave Roberson "multiple verbal commands" to drop his gun and get on the ground, while witnesses said the officer shot Roberson "not even five seconds" after ordering Roberson to drop the gun he had in his hand. The State's Attorney's Office decided to not file criminal charges against the police officer. (Full article...) -
Image 23
On July 19, 2018, Markeis McGlockton, 28, was fatally shot by Michael Drejka at a parking lot outside a local convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, United States. Shortly before the shooting, Drejka pulled in a spot not meant for parking and approached McGlockton's car to confront McGlockton's girlfriend for parking in a disabled parking space without a placard. McGlockton came out of the store to find Drejka screaming at his girlfriend and warned Drejka to back away from his vehicle. When that attempt was unsuccessful he then shoved Drejka to the ground. Drejka immediately drew his handgun and McGlockton began to back away. Five seconds after Drejka hit the ground, he shot McGlockton once. McGlockton later died from his injuries at a local hospital. He was unarmed at the time he was shot.
Drejka, a 47-year-old man, was not initially charged for the killing by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, with Sheriff Bob Gualtieri citing Florida's stand-your-ground law as the reason. The investigation was then handed over to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida State Attorney Bernie McCabe, who charged Drejka with one count of manslaughter on August 13, 2018. Drejka pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial began on August 19, 2019. Drejka was convicted of manslaughter on August 23, 2019, and was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years on October 10, 2019. The incident was widely reported by news media as another instance of Florida's stand-your-ground law, and generated significant attention and protests because Drejka was white and McGlockton was black with similarities to the killing of Trayvon Martin six years prior which generated international attention and debate. (Full article...) -
Image 24
The Charleston church shooting, also known as the Charleston church massacre, was an anti-black mass shooting and hate crime that occurred on June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed, and one was injured, during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest black church in the Southern United States. Among the fatalities was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. All ten victims were African Americans. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in U.S. history and is the deadliest mass shooting in South Carolina history.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, had attended the Bible study before opening fire. He was found to have targeted members of this church because of its history and status. In December 2016, Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. On January 10, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes. Roof was separately charged with nine counts of murder in the South Carolina state courts. In April 2017, Roof pleaded guilty to all nine state charges in order to avoid receiving a second death sentence, and as a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He will receive automatic appeals of his death sentence, but he may eventually be executed by the federal justice system. (Full article...) -
Image 25The San Francisco Police Department began operations on August 13, 1849 during the California Gold Rush in San Francisco, California, under the command of Captain Malachi Fallon. (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 1Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 2A 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 3Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 8Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 9Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (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 12Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 13George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 14A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 17Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 19An 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 20Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21The 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 24Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 25"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 26A 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 27Al 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 28Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 29Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 32Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 33Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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