Reflecting on 2021 and the Fight for Black Liberation

Fam,

This year, we could not have achieved our movement-building milestones without the support of our base, allies, partners, donors, and funders. As we reach the end of this year, we’re taking the time to look back on milestones that we achieved together.

And if you feel so moved, please chip in whatever you can afford to support the continuation of our vital work.

Black Futures Month

In February, we launched Black Futures Month and revealed our Afrofuturistic short film to tell the story of last year’s uprisings and our successes and vision. Black Futures Month is a visionary, forward-looking spin on celebrations of Blackness in February, one that we will continue for years to come. The Movement for Black Lives used this time to both consider and celebrate our Black radical history and to dream and imagine a world in which we are free and self-determined. We uplifted artists, creators, and organizers telling stories we have yet to hear — stories that will unlock our future. We also released a short Afrofuturist film produced in partnership with Root Story Films that imagines a future when all Black people will be free.

Partnered with me too. for Sexual Assault Awareness Month

This past April was the 20th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), and we joined forces with our comrades at me too. to talk about what rape culture is, where and how it shows up, whom it affects, and how to disrupt it. Our Vision for Black Lives platforms, End the War on Black Women and End the War on TGNCI People, highlight how Black women, girls, trans, queer, and nonbinary people have historically and continuously experienced high rates of sexual violence. This SAAM campaign was a powerful and far-reaching part of our multi-year effort to end the epidemic of patriarchal violence within Black communities.

National Black Climate Summit

In May, we held the first National Black Climate Summit, a virtual gathering sharing the knowledge and insights that Black communities can offer to fight against climate change. Black communities are often hit first and worst by extreme weather and climate change. We centered our needs and defended our right to clean air and water, renewable energy, and co-creating solutions to address the environmental racism Black people endure.

We won’t wait for a national agenda to include us. We know what’s best for our communities and what is needed to mitigate harm and maintain resiliency in the face of climate disasters. We encourage folks to join the Red, Black, and Green New Deal as we educate our communities, stand together in the face of ongoing disasters, and enact policies to end the slow violence of environmental injustice.

‘In These Times’ Magazine M4BL “Takeover”

In June, during Reparations Month, the Movement for Black Lives “took over” an entire issue of In These Times magazine. In collaboration with the outlet, we conceived, assigned, and wrote an entire magazine to document our work, speak for ourselves, and build narrative power using our stories. Then, in July, we hosted a virtual behind-the-scenes look at the magazine featuring some of the contributors to the special edition. Together we discussed the current state of Black power-building and the struggle for Black liberation.

Struggle for Power Report

In August, we teamed up with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) clinic at City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law and released Struggle for Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement by the U.S. Government. The report details how the federal government deliberately targeted supporters of the movement defending Black lives after the brutal police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor during the summer 2020 uprisings. For as long as they have existed, movements for Black liberation have faced surveillance from the federal government, and Black organizers are often punished by law enforcement, policymakers, or the courts, which all attempt to repress, destroy, and ultimately thwart their acts of resistance. We must continue to do the critical work of protecting our people from punitive measures by telling the world what the government is doing and pushing for the release of all political prisoners.

The Tea: Our Queer AF Newsletter

This summer we launched The Tea, a newsletter that celebrates and uplifts the lives and experiences of Black queer and TGNCI people in the United States and globally. The Tea not only highlights the current state of the world for Black queer and TGNCI folks but also includes spotlights of queer organizers in the ecosystem; calls to action that protect Black queer and trans lives; culture and art created by Black queer and TGNCI folks; education about terminology; celebrating milestones in the community; and a dedication to honoring Black queer history makers, as well as remembering lives lost. Read the latest issue here.

BREATHE-inspired legislation

Since the unveiling of the M4BL ecosystem-authored BREATHE Act in 2020, BREATHE has inspired exciting new legislation to ensure that we shift our approach to safety away from punishment and toward healing. Illinois passed the IL BREATHE Act, the largest criminal-legal system reform bill in its state history. On a federal level, Rep. Cori Bush introduced a key section of BREATHE, The People’s Response Act, focused on investments in our communities and shifting away from a carceral and punitive approach to a public health model. The BREATHE act also inspired the Drug Policy Reform Act, a necessary drug decriminalization bill that would decriminalize substance abuse and move authority over federal drug classifications out of the hands of the Attorney General and into the hands of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And earlier this month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced the BREATHE-inspired Fix Clemency Act to ensure the federal clemency process is fair, reliable, and just.

BREATHE continues to inspire Black people across the country, and it enjoys broad support. A recent poll found that a majority of Americans support the BREATHE Act and its transformative vision for community safety. With police reform failing to move in Congress in 2021, M4BL expects BREATHE to produce more bills and to advance new, innovative approaches to keeping Black people and communities safe.

The Fight for Invest/Divest & the Minneapolis “Yes on 2” Campaign

We currently have divest/invest (also called defund) campaigns operating in 10 cities across the country! We’re mobilizing Black people to fight for a reimagined approach to public safety in their home cities, and the momentum is growing. This year, Black Visions, a member of the M4BL ecosystem, organized an opportunity for the people of Minneapolis to vote for a vision of public safety that works for everyone, not just some, and nearly half of Minneapolis voted “yes!” Although the measure missed passing by a small margin, together we knocked on tens of thousands of doors, made hundreds of thousands of calls, and mobilized more than a hundred organizers and canvassers to join us in rejecting the status quo of policing. Our people came together and came out for Minneapolis. It was remarkable to see organizations move together outside of an uprising moment, engaging in bread-and-butter organizing tactics toward a shared goal.

Black Visions invited the ecosystem to a fight worthy of our people’s courage and sacrifice, and the organizations that joined us left with a renewed sense of what is possible, as well as an understanding of how we as an ecosystem can ride for each other while recognizing our shared risks and shared rewards.

The Movement for Black Lives has worked tirelessly in 2021 to reach, connect with, and organize folks across the country in service of our collective vision for a liberated future for Black people. The work is far from over, but we are proud of the progress we’ve made together.

M4BL is shaped by the lives and legacies of those who came before us. We are children born from lineages of revolutionaries and freedom fighters, and we are guided by their lessons of love and liberation.

If you’re able, support us in continuing the crucial work to build that future in 2022 and beyond.

In love and solidarity in this year and the next,
Movement for Black Lives

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