Special News Series: Rising Up For Justice! – Black Lives Matter Launches relief fund for Black people during pandemic

Introduction To This Series:

This post is one installment in an ongoing news series: a “living history” of the current national and international uprising for justice.

Today’s movement descends directly from the many earlier civil rights struggles against repeated injustices and race-based violence, including the killing of unarmed Black people. The posts in this series serve as a timeline of the uprising that began on May 26, 2020, the day after a Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck. The viral video of Floyd’s torturous suffocation brought unprecedented national awareness to the ongoing demand to truly make Black Lives Matter in this country.

The posts in this series focus on stories of the particular killings that have spurred the current uprising and on the protests taking place around the USA and across the globe. Sadly, thousands of people have lost their lives to systemic racial, gender, sexuality, judicial, and economic injustice. The few whose names are listed here represent the countless others lost before and since. Likewise, we can report but a few of the countless demonstrations for justice now taking place in our major cities, small towns, and suburbs.

Black Lives Matter Launches relief fund for Black people during pandemic

By The Crusader, Chicago/Gary Online

March 9, 2021

As Congress delays in passing COVID-19 relief legislation, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) and BLM Grassroots unveiled a $3 million, nationwide fund to assist Black people who are struggling financially during the pandemic.

“Millions of people in Black communities have lost their jobs, been evicted, gone hungry or fallen ill during the pandemic, and the BLM Survival Fund is a bold initiative to provide some relief during this unprecedented time,” said Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder and Executive Director of BLMGNF. “Congress absolutely needs to step up and provide monthly survival checks for our communities. Because they have refused to do so, we are challenged to provide as much mutual aid as possible to help  cover the rent, groceries, utilities, gas and general costs of survival.”

The $1,000 grants are available to self-identified Black activists, surviving Black family members of those killed by police or while incarcerated, and Black people who have been financially harmed in the midst of the pandemic. The grants will be weighted toward Black people experiencing economic hardship who are transgender, single parents/guardians, and/or were formerly incarcerated.

The BLM Survival Fund follows the model of other Black organizations over the years which overcame a lack of government investment in Black communities by organizing their own social justice efforts, such as the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program for children…

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