Black Lives Matter

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow
Mammy Statue JC Museum Ferris
Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow
Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.
Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters
Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.
An Iconic Lynching in the North
Lynching Quilt
Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two
Joshua Glover Plaque
Some Exhibits to Come – Three Centuries Of Enslavement
Harriet Tubman, "The Conductor," with fugitive slaves in Underground Railroad station
Bibliography – Three Centuries of Enslavement
Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali
Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity
Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie
Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage
Slaveship Stowage Plan
What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829
Arno Michaels
Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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Black Lives Matter, sometimes shortened to “BLM,” is an anti-racist movement that highlights racism and the disparities that evolve from racism, including police brutality and other anti-Black violence. Black Lives Matter gained popularity online after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer was recorded and shared by a bystander. In response to the video, which shows officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, protests erupted around the world. These protests were often met with police violence, some of which has been declared illegal while protestors have been falsely arrested.

The momentum continued to draw attention to police violence, both as more Black lives were taken and as previous stories came to light. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor are also victims who the movement has recognized. Thanks to the attention given to these cases, some of the perpetrators have finally faced justice, including Derek Chauvin, who has been convicted with murder.

BLM also encouraged police reform and greater investigations into policing, with some activists calling for reparations  or to defund the police and reroute funds to other social programs that may be more effective. The movement has further brought attention to international conflict and raised funds during the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways, the movement reflects the previous Civil Rights Movement, which lasted through the 1960s to 1980s including the Black Panther Party, which provided community assistance. Because of this, the movement has been recognized for its historical significance. 

However, the movement has come under fire for protests that turned violent, for focusing too much on Black men, and for mismanaging funds raised.

A nonprofit organization, The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, also exists. Some people may refer to it as simply “Black Lives Matter.”

See all of our Black Lives Matter content below, starting with the most recent.

A year after Ferguson, 6 in 10 Americans say changes are needed to give blacks and whites equal rights

August 7, 2015

A growing number of Americans say the country needs more changes to give blacks equal rights, according to a new Washington Post poll.

Bill O’Reilly Compares #BlackLivesMatter Movement To Gestapo

July 31, 2015

Bill O’Reilly compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the gestapo Wednesday night, shortly before proclaiming he is the reporter who has done the most to “shed light” on violence against young black men.

[ABHM] Lecture series asks ‘Do Black Lives Matter?’

July 25, 2015

ABHM Head Griot Reggie Jackson is interviewed about the origins of the devaluation of black lives in America. His four-session series covers a 400-year history of the laws, court decisions, customs, pseudo-science, medicine, policing, and other practices that justify and support that attitude that black lives do not matter.

Cop Threatens to Use Taser on Sandra Bland in New Dash-Cam Video

July 22, 2015

New dashboard-camera footage has been released showing Sandra Bland’s ill-fated police stop July 10.

Eric Garner Is Remembered One Year After His Death

July 17, 2015

Held aloft in her mother’s arms, Legacy Garner, the 15-month-old daughter of Eric Garner, opened a wooden bird cage Friday morning and released a white rock dove.

Fatal police shootings in 2015 approaching 400 nationwide

June 3, 2015

At least 385 people were shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day, according to a Washington Post analysis. That is more than twice the rate of fatal police shootings tallied by the federal government over the past decade.

Officer in Freddie Gray case demanded man’s arrest as part of personal dispute

May 8, 2015

Baltimore lieutenant Brian Rice used his position to threaten ‘heads will roll’ if officers did not arrest his ex-girlfriend’s husband, police report reveals.
The most senior Baltimore police officer charged over the death of Freddie Gray used his position to order the arrest of a man as part of a personal dispute just two weeks before the fatal incident, prompting an internal inquiry by Baltimore police department.

Baltimore Free Farm Feeds Protestors Through ‘Culinary Solidarity’

May 4, 2015

As protests enveloped the city following the death 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose spine was severed while in police custody, the organization Baltimore Free Farm immediately began working around the clock to feed hungry demonstrators.

What’s Happening In Baltimore Didn’t Just Start With Freddie Gray

April 29, 2015

This week’s chaos on the streets of Baltimore has been decades in the making.

Violence erupted in the city on Monday after days of largely peaceful protests over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who recently died of injuries he sustained while in police custody. But Gray’s death was just the latest point on a timeline stretching back generations, one that encompasses all manner of racial inequity and human indignity.

Thousands dead, few prosecuted

April 24, 2015

Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found. Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved.