LibGuides: Black Lives Matter Movement: Primary Sources

Featured Primary Sources

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Against Capital in the Twenty-First Century Chapter: #BlackLivesMatter The problems of capitalism have been studied from Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty. The latter has recently confirmed that the system of capital is deeply bound up in ever-growing inequality without challenging the continuance of that system. Against Capital in the Twenty-First Century presents a diversity of analyses and visions opposed to the idea that capital should have yet another century to govern human and non-human resources in the interest of profit and accumulation. The editors and contributors to this timely volume present alternatives to the whole liberal litany of administered economies, tax policy recommendations, and half-measures. They undermine and reject the logic of capital, and the foregone conclusion that the twenty-first century should be given over to capital just as the previous two centuries were.Providing a deep critique of capitalism, based on assessment from a wide range of cultural, social, political, and ecological thinking, Against Capital in the Twenty-First Century insists that transformative, revolutionary, and abolitionist responses to capital are even more necessary in the twenty-first century than they ever were.
Black Lives, Black Words Chapter: Black Lives Matter Selected and edited by the award-winning American playwright Reginald Edmund, who produced Black Lives, Black Words across the US, which premiered in Chicago, July 2015. This ongoing international project has explored the black diaspora's experiences in some of the largest multicultural cities in the world, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Toronto and London. Over sixty Black writers from the UK, USA, and Canada have each written a short play to address Black issues today.Featured in this collection are:Reginald EdmundIdris GoodwinJames Austin WilliamsRachel DuboseBecca C. BrowneMarsha EstellAaron HollandLoy A. WebbLisa LangfordChristina HamHarrison David RiversDominique MorisseauWinsome PinnockTrish CookeMojisola AdebayoRachel De-LahayMax KolaruYolanda MercySomalia SeatonCourttia NewlandLuke ReeceTawiah BenEben M'CarthyKanika AmbroseJordan LaffrenierMeghan SwabyMary Ann AnaneAllie WoodsonElliot SagayAmira DananCat DavidsonNoelle FourteKori Alston
Racial Tensions in a “Post-Racial” Age Many Americans would like to believe that because the United States has now twice elected a black president, we live in a "postracial" society where discrimination and racism do not exist or only do among outlying, insignificant extremists. Yet, there has been much in the news to contest this notion--not only in the form of police brutality in black communities but also in persisting residential segregation and social inequities between different populations. In opposition to claims of a postracial society, then, are cries of pervasive structural racism and the rise of such activist groups as Black Lives Matter. We have also seen a resurgence in debates around affirmative action and reparations for slavery. While race may be a "social construct," it still has very real effects on national and global politics and society. This volume will explore the state of race in the United States today.

INVESTIGATION OF THE FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT-REPORT SUMMARY 2015 In August 2014, a suspect in a local convenience store shoplifting incident, Michael Brown, was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, by police office Darren Wilson. Brown was black; Wilson was white. The shooting prompted many protests in Ferguson, and because of its highly charged racial nature, it was investigated by the FBI and the US Department of Justice, which wrote up a pair of reports. The first exonerated Officer Wilson of any civil rights violations, but the second report, excerpted here, produced a damning study of the city of Ferguson's racial biases and poor priorities when it came to law enforcement.
MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES–VISION FOR BLACK LIVES 2015 In July 2015, a coalition of African-American community groups gathered at Cleveland State University to link their efforts together and found a larger, umbrella organization whose numbers could not be easily ignored by government. The result in 2016 was the Movement for Black Lives. Over the course of its assembly between 2015 and 2016, leaders and members of MBL wrote up a manifesto of sorts, a platform of demands defined by the problems that brought the demands about and the solutions the MBL expected to effect. The resulting platform became known over social media as the Vision for Black Lives, and was generally associated by the public with one of the smaller groups contained within the Movement for Black Lives, called Black Lives Matter.

About Primary Sources

Primary sources are records created at the time of an event or experience, or as told by people who were present at the event such as those listed below. Get Tips for Finding Primary Sources.

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