Black Lives Matter Archives - YES! Magazine Solutions Journalism

Lessons from Ferguson, 10 Years Later

The Ferguson uprising ignited a national reckoning about racist policing. Missouri State Sen. Brian Williams, who grew up in Ferguson, reflects on the progress made and challenges remaining.

| Aug 7, 2024

The Revolutionary Power of Grieving in Public

Collective grief is a powerful tool that has historically fueled social justice organizing鈥攁nd healing.

Yolande Clark-Jackson | Jul 2, 2024

Black Americans Back Defunding Police

A new survey by the Movement for Black Lives finds that a majority of Black Americans support reallocating police funding toward community care.

| Dec 13, 2023

How Black Lives Matter Changed the U.S.

In the decade since it began, #BlackLivesMatter has shifted the nation's collective consciousness, whether we wanted it shifted or not.

Erin Aubry Kaplan | Jul 28, 2023

Opinion | Living While Black | Black Art | Everyday Resistance

Drawing While Black: A Reflection on Art, Activism, and Ancestry

For artist Ajuan Mance, creating the comic book 鈥淟iving While Black鈥� was her effort to challenge and undermine the criminalization of Black people鈥檚 everyday activities.

Ajuan Mance | Mar 7, 2023

Alicia Garza speaking into a mic at the Women Of Color Leadership Dinner

How Black History Paves the Way for a Just Black Future

Alicia Garza is searching for Black-led solutions to some of the biggest problems of our democracy鈥攕olutions that go far beyond a hashtag.

Sonali Kolhatkar | Feb 1, 2023

The Anti-Blackness at the Root of Police Violence

Scholar Rashad Shabazz explains how anti-Black bias is so central to American policing that even Black officers are influenced by it.

Rashad Shabazz | Jan 31, 2023

A man holds up a sign that reads "World Leaders, reparations for slavery now!"

Opinion | Storytelling | Reparations

On the Other Side of Reparations, a New World Awaits

Inspiring stories about our past can open portals to the world that awaits us and help us dream what a world with reparations looks like.

Aria Florant, Trevor Smith | Oct 20, 2022

An Activity Book for the Anti-Racist锟�

Comedian W. Kamau Bell together with his co-author Kate Schatz have written a new activity book, chock full of coloring pages, crosswords, thought experiments and exercises.

Sonali Kolhatkar | Aug 18, 2022

The Supreme Court鈥檚 Crisis of Legitimacy

The Supreme Court has demonstrated that the highest law of the land is whatever they feel like saying it is. What do we do when the court and other institutions are widely seen as illegitimate?

Chris Winters | Jul 5, 2022

30 Years After the L.A. Uprising, Multi-Racial Organizers Rebuild the City

The 1992 L.A. rebellion was a wake-up call for a deeply segregated city. Where authorities have failed over 30 years to rebuild what was lost, multi-racial organizing has succeeded in leading progressive change.

Sonali Kolhatkar | Apr 29, 2022

Excerpt | Police Brutality | Police

An Afro-Indigenous Perspective on Policing

In his new book, Kyle T. Mays argues that the violence of policing has always been intimately tied to U.S. democracy.

Kyle T. Mays | Feb 8, 2022

Abolition Through the Ages: Reform Versus Transformation, Then and Now

Just as slavery couldn鈥檛 be reformed and had to be ended, policing can鈥檛 be reformed and has to be abolished, say leaders of modern-day abolitionist movements.

Sonali Kolhatkar | Nov 15, 2021

10 Years After Occupy Wall Street, Its Legacy Remains Strong

Occupy Wall Street gave the left ideas, skills, and a base in a way no one could have imagined a decade ago. The radicalization of a generation, the ability to easily explain class, the potential for mass nonviolent direct action, and crowbarring politics to let in socialist ideas and elected officials are all invaluable legacies.

Arun Gupta | Oct 20, 2021

How U.S. Wars Abroad Are Intimately Tied to Police Brutality at Home

The demands to defund the police are linked to the call for ending militarism. There is a strong case to be made for these movements to join forces against both forms of violence.

Khury Petersen-Smith | Aug 25, 2021

Analysis | Gun Violence | Kenosha | Wisconsin | Vigilante Violence

Vigilante Violence Is an American Tradition

Research suggests vigilantism doesn't arise from an absent or weak government, but rather when the very principles that make up a government and its people themselves seem to be changing.

Jonathan Obert | Aug 28, 2020

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