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 aims 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 1Deacon Johhny Hollman Sr. was a 62-year-old man killed by Atlanta Police officer Kiran Kimbrough on August 10, 2023. (Full article...)
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Image 2On December 30, 2014, 36-year-old African-American man Jerame Reid was shot and killed in Bridgeton, New Jersey, by Bridgeton police officer Braheme Days and his partner, Roger Worley, during a traffic stop for running through a stop sign. The encounter was captured on a dashcam video that was released on January 22, 2015. (Full article...)
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Image 3On November 22, 2014, Tamir E. Rice, a twelve year old African-American boy, was killed in Cleveland, Ohio, by Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old white patrolman with the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP). Rice was carrying a replica toy gun; Loehmann shot him almost immediately upon arriving on the scene. Loehmann and his partner, 46-year-old Frank Garmback, had been responding to a dispatch call regarding a male who had a gun. A caller reported that a male was pointing "a pistol" at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center, a park in Cleveland's Public Works Department. The caller twice told to the dispatcher that the pistol was "probably fake", and also stated that the male was "probably a juvenile", but the dispatcher did not relay either of these statements to Loehmann and Garmback.
Loehmann and Garmback reported that when they arrived at the scene, both continuously yelled "show me your hands" through the open patrol car window. Loehmann further stated that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw: "I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out." Loehmann shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso. Rice died the following day. (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 5The 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 6The 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 7Our Lady, Mother of Ferguson and All Those Killed by Gun Violence, simply known as Our Lady of Ferguson, is an icon of the Madonna and Child. The icon, which depicts the Virgin Mary as a Black Madonna, was created in 2015 by Mark Doox (formerly Mark Dukes), an iconographer, and was commissioned by the Rev. Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones, an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in New York City. The icon, created after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has been referenced as a symbol against gun violence, particularly towards members of the African-American community in the United States. (Full article...)
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Image 8
On June 18, 2020, Nick Lloyd painted the phrase "Black Lives Matter" in large bright yellow block letters on North Edison Street in Portland, Oregon's St. Johns neighborhood. (Full article...) -
Image 9The academic Strike for Black Lives and #ShutDownSTEM day were a mass shutdown of academia that took place around the world on June 10, 2020. The main goals of the strike and the shut down were to reflect upon anti-Black racism in academia and STEM and to commit to actions to eradicate it. (Full article...)
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Image 10On May 25, 2020, Dion Johnson, a 28-year-old Black man, was killed in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. According to the Phoenix Police, Department of Public Safety trooper George Cervantes was patrolling when he discovered Johnson's vehicle parked in the gore point near Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard. Cervantes approached the vehicle and found Johnson asleep at the drivers seat, with cans of beer and a gun in the car, after removing the gun, Cervantes attempted to arrest Johnson.
According to Cervantes, an altercation occurred when Johnson woke up and grabbed at him, Cervantes drew his weapon and ordered Johnson to comply with instructions, Johnson complied and then as Cervantes holstered his weapon, Johnson lunged for the weapon. Another altercation ensued in the struggle, resulting in Cervantes allegedly firing his weapon twice, with one bullet fatally striking Johnson. Johnson later died at the hospital. Police stated there was neither body camera nor car camera footage, and Cervantes was not wearing a body camera. In declining to file charges, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel said that multiple witnesses corroborated Cervantes's account; a lawyer for Johnson's family questioned the eyewitness accounts, saying that the witnesses "were driving on the highway at high rates of speed." (Full article...) -
Image 11
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 12On April 11, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black American man, was fatally shot in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding warrant. After a brief struggle with officers, Potter shot Wright in the chest once at close range. Wright then drove off a short distance until his vehicle collided with another and hit a concrete barrier. An officer administered CPR to Wright; paramedics were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Potter said she meant to use her service Taser, shouting "Taser! Taser! Taser!" just before firing her service pistol instead.
The shooting sparked protests in Brooklyn Center and renewed ongoing demonstrations against police shootings in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, leading to citywide and regional curfews. Demonstrations took place over several days, and spread to cities across the United States. Two days after the incident, Potter and Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon resigned from their positions. (Full article...) -
Image 13In 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 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...) -
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Elle Moxley (formerly Elle Hearns, born 1986/1987) is an American transgender rights activist. She co-founded the Black Lives Matter Global Network, where she served as a strategic partner and organizing coordinator, and founded The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, where she serves as executive director. (Full article...) -
Image 16Darnella 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 17On January 24, 2023, six white law enforcement officers, five from the Rankin County Sheriff's Office and one from the Richland Police Department, tortured two black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, at a home in Braxton, Mississippi. Police were called to the home by a white neighbor who reported that Jenkins and Parker had entered the home with a white woman. The six officers, who referred to themselves as the "Goon Squad", entered the house without a warrant, then proceeded to torture Jenkins and Parker over the course of the next hour and a half. The torture included Jenkins being shot in the mouth by Hunter Elward, shattering his jaw, Parker being sexually assaulted by Daniel Opdyke, and threats of rape. The six officers were charged in both state and federal court and pleaded guilty to all charges against them. (Full article...)
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Image 18Bars4Justice (also #Bars4Justice) is a 2015 American short documentary film directed by Samoan filmmaker Queen Muhammad Ali and Hakeem Khaaliq. The film was recorded in Ferguson, Missouri during the first anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown August 9–10, 2015. The film is an official selection of several international festivals including winning Best Short documentary at the 24th annual Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Glasgow Short Film Festival in Scotland, Tirana International Film Festival (DOCUTIFF) in Albania, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan NY. (Full article...)
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Image 19
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 20
A mural of George Floyd was painted by Emma Berger outside Portland, Oregon's Apple Pioneer Place, on June 1, 2020, a week after his death, against the background of the ongoing protests against police brutality. She expanded the mural to show Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and phrases associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The work was vandalized in August, and repaired by the artist. It was covered by Apple Inc. in December for preservation, then removed in January 2021 to be donated to Don't Shoot PDX. (Full article...) -
Image 21On April 14, 2021, three officers from the Honolulu Police Department shot and killed 29-year-old Lindani Myeni fronting a home in Nuʻuanu, Honolulu County, Hawaii during an alleged burglary. Myeni was a Black South African who played professional rugby and had two young children. The shooting took place in a residence's driveway after apparent fighting with Honolulu police officers. All three police officers were injured, and one was hospitalized.
After the killing, Myeni's widow Lindsay Myeni filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Honolulu, while Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm decided not to prosecute any of the involved officers after an investigation by his office. Later autopsy results show he suffered from a degenerative brain disease often found in American football players and other athletes subjected to repeated head trauma, commonly known as Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This finding could help explain Lindani Myeni's bizarre behavior during the incident. (Full article...) -
Image 22Save the Boards is an American nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis that collects and preserves street art that emerged during local protests of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. (Full article...)
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Image 23
"Hands up, don't shoot", sometimes shortened to "hands up", is a slogan and gesture that originated after the August 9, 2014, police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and then adopted at protests against police brutality elsewhere in the United States. The slogan implies one has their hands in the air, a common sign of submission, and is therefore not a threat to an approaching police officer. Witness reports from the Brown shooting are conflicted as to what Brown was doing with his hands when he was shot. One witness claimed Brown had his hands in the air before being killed, which was the basis for the slogan. (Full article...) -
Image 24The George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2020 (LETIA) is a subtitle of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 which aims to reduce the prevalence of police brutality by fostering connections between police departments and communities. The bill also calls for national policing standards and accreditations. The bill died in committee.
The bill was co-sponsored by Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Jason Crow (D-CO), and Karen Bass (D-CA). It was introduced to the House Judiciary Committee by chairman Nadler and Minnesota representative Omar following the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests. Subsequently, the bill was adjoined to the Omnibus Justice in Policing Act of 2020 at the bills announcement on June 8. (Full article...) -
Image 25Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones (July 20, 2002 – May 16, 2010) was a seven-year-old African American girl from Detroit's East Side who was shot in the neck and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team. The Team was targeting a suspect in the apartment a floor above Jones' on May 16, 2010. Her death drew national media attention and led U.S. Representative John Conyers to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal investigation into the incident.
Officer Joseph Weekley was charged in connection with Jones' killing. In October 2011, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. Weekley's first trial ended in a mistrial in June 2013.
His retrial began in September 2014. On October 3, the judge, Cynthia Gray Hathaway, dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Weekley, leaving him on trial for only one charge: recklessly discharging a firearm.
On October 10, the second trial ended in another mistrial.
On January 28, 2015, a prosecutor dropped the last remaining charge against Weekley, ensuring there would not be a third trial. (Full article...)
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Selected images
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Image 1A 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 2Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (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 4A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 10Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 11A 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 13Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 15An 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 16Al 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 17Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 19Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 22The 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 23"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 24Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 26Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 27One-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 28Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 29Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 32Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 34Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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