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Black Lives Matter

Maurice Mitchell, left, the new national director of the Working Families Party, with his predecessor, Dan Cantor, at the Working Families Party office in Brooklyn, New York. Rafael Shimunov / Working Families Party

Economic vs. Racial Justice Is a ‘False Choice,’ Says the New Working Families Party Director

By Commentaries/Opinions

Maurice Mitchell wants the WFP to be a political home for working-class people of every race. By Collier Meyerson — The Working Families Party, a progressive political political party that is active in 19 states, just announced that its longtime national director, Dan Cantor, has been succeeded in the role by Maurice Mitchell. The first black person to hold the post, Mitchell has two decades of experience in political and…

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Veronica Curry and other Black Lives Matter activists and supporters during a rally on Interstate 5 in Sacramento, California, March 22, 2018

Sacramento Is Seething Over the Police Killing of Stephon Clark

By News & Current Affairs

His fate has sent a collective shudder of horror through the city’s African-American community. By Sasha Abramsky — After the white hearse, trailed by a van from the funeral company that repaired Stephon Clark’s broken body, pulled into the Boss Bayside church in South Sacramento, dozens of mourners began filing in to view the dead man. It was 1 pm on March 28, a hot, cloudless day, more than a…

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Protesters against gun violence at the March for Our Lives in Los Angeles

Why Focusing on People of Color Will Help the Movement for Gun Control Succeed

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Sonali Kolhatkar — Any discussions of gun violence and the regulations needed to curb it are incomplete unless they include an analysis of how racism plays a role. Government data show that “black Americans are, on average, eight times more likely to be killed by firearms than those who are white.” Gun violence by police against ordinary Americans also disproportionately affects people of color—a fact that the Black Lives Matter movement has…

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Alicia Garza

Black Americans Face ‘Impossible Choices’ at Election Time. Alicia Garza Wants to Change That.

By Commentaries/Opinions

The co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement talked to The Nation about her initiative to engage skeptics and build political power among black communities. By Collier Meyerson — In 2015, I profiled activist and organizer Alicia Garza as part of Glamour’s “Women of the Year” issue. Garza, along with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, is credited with coining the phrase #BlackLivesMatter, popularizing the hashtag and for its quick ascendance…

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Patrisse Cullors and Tarana Burke - How #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo Went From Hashtags to Movements

Patrisse Cullors and Tarana Burke: Anger, Activism, and Action

By Editors' Choice, Video/Audio

By ELLE — The Founders of Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo Movement on Making Change. Patrisse Cullors and Tarana Burke are recognizable, but their work is perhaps even more so. #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo became the shorthand for the agitation and labor these activists lent to their causes, and the hashtags spread the word about police violence against black people and sexual harassment, respectively.

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United Auto Workers and Nissan employees in August 2017 after a failed unionization bid. High profile battles have put a spotlight on the links between economic and racial justice.

How Black Lives Matter Breathed New Life Into Unions

By News & Current Affairs

As Black Lives Matter and other social justice campaigns focus more on economic inequality, unions see an opportunity. By Mike Elk, The Guardian — After decades of decline unions have found a new champion in efforts to organize workers: the Black Lives Matter movement. Unions have suffered as manufacturing has moved south away from their old strongholds in the north of the US. Membership rates were 10.7% in 2016, down from 20.1% in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time the shift from manufacturing to service industry jobs has hurt them too.

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Patrisse Khan-Cullors

‘I grew up in a war zone’: Black Lives Matter’s Patrisse Khan-Cullors on racism in America

By News & Current Affairs

By Elena Sheppard, Yahoo Lifestyle — It was a lifetime of oppression and violence that led activist Patrisse Khan-Cullors to cofound the Black Lives Matter movement, but the catalyst was one particular instant: The moment when George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Scouring Facebook after the decision was announced, Khan-Cullors came upon a post by her friend Alicia Garza (who went on to cofound the movement…

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Alicia Garza — Oakland, Calif.-based organizer and co-founder of Black Lives Matter

Activist Organizers’ Hopes for 2018 from Movements around the World

By News & Current Affairs

From Alicia Garza to Annie Leonard, nine organizers share their hopes for the new year. By Beverly Bell, YES! Magazine — Across the globe, 2017 brought us to new lows. Yet, even as crisis after crisis shook us to the ground, they also inspired many to rise up and take to the streets and other venues of popular power. Donald Trump as president awakened millions, sparked new cross-sectoral coalitions, and galvanized people to creative and effective action.

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