Black Lives Matter Archives - Rolling Out

On Monday, March 2, 2020, the Los Angeles County district attorney, Jackie Lacey, caught flack after her husband, David Lacey, pulled a gun on about 50 members of Black Lives Matter, according to KTTV. Black Lives Matter member, Melina Abdullah, told KTTV the protesters rang Lacey’s doorbell to meet with her at 5:40 a.m. A…

We caught up with activist DeRay McKesson to talk about the importance of tech in building up the Black community. How important is technology for the advancement of Black people? There is no America without Blackness. There is no culture or community without Blackness. Blackness has always set the trend of what is cool [and]…

Just one week after being reported missing, Clark Atlanta University student Alexis Crawford’s body was found in a DeKalb county park and her roommate, Jordyn Jones and Jones’ boyfriend, Barron Brantley, were charged with her murder. According to reports, Crawford and Jones got into a physical altercation, likely surrounding the sexual assault allegation that Crawford…

A Black woman endured sexual abuse after being searched by police in San Antonio. In a ruling issued on Oct. 17, Natalie Simms received $205,000 after proving a detective pulled her tampon during a strip search, according to KSAT. The incident occurred in 2016 when Natalie Simms was pulled over by Detective Mara Wilson of…

The police are not our friends. Just like the original Constitution was not intended to apply to Blacks in America, the notion of protect and serve is inapplicable to us as well. The police do not protect or serve the interests of Black and Brown people — instead they are trained and programmed to harm…

An independent investigator claims that police were justified in firing 55 rounds in 3.5 seconds at a Black man sleeping in his car. David Blake, a former cop and investigator hired by the Vallejo Police Department, concluded that the police used “reasonable and necessary” force while shooting Willie McCoy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.…

A Black woman faced harassment by police because she chose to listen to speeches by Malcolm X. A video of Mikisa Thompson being arrested recently went viral. According to Indy Week, Thompson’s Wake County, North Carolina, home was raided after a White neighbor complained about the speeches. Shortly after 10 p.m. on May 16, 2019,…

In the opening scene of the documentary Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland, Sandra Bland speaks directly into the camera and addresses White America. “White people, yes, Black people know all lives matter,” Bland said in an April 2015 recording created for her “Sandy Speaks” video blog. “But what I need you…

Deadly police shootings plagued headlines in 2017 and continued to do so in 2018. In 2017, officials recorded 987 police killings nationwide. As of June 2018, 519 deaths had been confirmed so far. The fatal shootings of unarmed African Americans have had an especially corrosive influence on relations between police departments and communities of color.…

Some people are publicly criticizing the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. for his remarks during Aretha Franklin’s homegoing service. Williams, a pastor based in Atlanta, is a friend of Franklin’s family, who also eulogized her father, C.L. Franklin, in 1984. However, Williams is facing backlash for his fiery eulogy that touched on Black-on-Black violence, single-parent households,…

As the world paused for the day to pay its final respects to the undisputed “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, no performer brought as much gravitas to the building than its closer, Stevie Wonder. After a soul-stirring harmonica solo and an equally emotional speech, in which he interpolated a popular Trumpian phrase, telling the audience…

Now that Black Lives Matter organizers in Atlanta have called for n boycott of the 24-hour diner Waffle House chain, the popular eatery is all over social media. Surprisingly, many people who do not live in the Southeast have never even heard of Waffle House. However, in the South, everyone from truck drivers to musicians finishing a…

Organizations under the Black Lives Matter movement in Atlanta have announced a national boycott at a press conference held at the Georgia corporate headquarters of Waffle House, the popular 24-hour diner chain. The boycott comes after a series of incidents at Waffle House locations in Alabama. Among those on hand to make the announcement were Dre…

For the past year, people who thought they were donating to the grassroots organization Black Lives Matter (BLM) through Facebook, may have been lining the pockets of a White man in Australia. According to CNN, the Facebook page simply titled Black Lives Matter, had over 700K followers and was traced back to a man named Ian…

The city of Atlanta is having a real problem when it comes to social activism and the new school leaders that are rising. No longer is Atlanta seeing social movements that have roots in the Black church, but rather movements that have roots in social media, coffee shops, living rooms and the streets by young millennials. These…

The HOPEGlobal Forums are a community of events that serve as a call to action to reimagine the global economy so the benefits and opportunities of free enterprise can be extended to everyone. The initiative is curated through a series of conferences, events, and policy programs designed to foster leadership around this critical issue. Next Monday, March 26-28, the HOPE Global Forums | 2018…

We’ve seen this movie play out before. Instead of addressing the issue of why the organization, Black Lives Matter, was formed in the first place, the politicians and cultural gatekeepers slapped a label on BLM in an effort to “neutralize” it and silence its leadership. Why does that process ring with haunting familiarity? Because it has…

The firebrand daughter of police chokehold victim Eric Garner died in Brooklyn Saturday morning, sources told the New York Daily News. She was 27. The beloved and outspoken Erica Garner had been fighting for her life since she suffered a massive heart attack a week ago, family members told the Daily News Thursday. Relatives and friends…

Erica Garner is not brain dead. On Dec. 28, New York Daily News reported that Garner, 27, was declared brain dead by doctors without a chance of recovery. However, family members dispute the report. Hours after the report went viral, a person close to Garner tweeted from her account. The person tweeted, “I know that…

Since its inception, the Black Lives Matter movement has been a target by racists who hate and fear the very thought of Black people uniting for a common peaceful goal. As a result, BLM leaders have been the targets of racist vitriol, death threats, and a federal lawsuit. Last year, a police officer sued BLM…