Black Lives Matter (BLM) Library Guide
- Black Lives Matter Movement to fight for Freedom, Liberation and Justice for communities of color.
- National Action Network National Action Network is one of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, criminal record, economic status, gender, gender expression, or sexuality.
- NAACP Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists. Our mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
- The Movement for Black Lives The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.
- Color of Change Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.
Books from the Library Catalog
Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by
Main Collection--3rd Floor
Call Number: 305.896073 R212m 2018ISBN: 9780520292703
The Making of Black Lives Matter by Call Number: 305.896 LebISBN: 9780190601348Publication Date: 2017-06-01
Policing the Black Man by Call Number: HV9950 .P64 2018ISBN: 9780525436614Publication Date: 2018-05-15
Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History
Facts on the BLM Movement
- Community organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi used the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after the 2012 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin, a 17- year-old Florida teen, and set off a movement to address the ongoing violence and killings of Black men, women and children at the hands of police (law enforcement) and vigilantes.
- The BLM movement also helped inspire another related but equally important movement, the #SayHerName campaign. This campaign was started in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS). The #SayHerName campaign brings awareness to the state of violence that is visited upon Black women and girls.
- BLM in Sports: The NBA plastered ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the game court in Walt Disney World in Orlando, where the professional basketball league is finishing its coronavirus-shortened season. The NBA also approved 29 statements, such as ‘Say Their Names’ and ‘I Can’t Breathe,’ for players to wear on their jerseys in Orlando for the official games in July 2020.
- BLM in Arts & Entertainment: “Black Parade” by Beyoncé, which was released in honor of Juneteenth, encourages listeners to protest for equality and celebrates her heritage and identity. The uplifting song has since played a significant role in growing Black-owned businesses as proceeds from the song are going to Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Small Business Impact Fund.
- BLM in Corporate America: Posting a black box on social media to show solidarity becomes performative when there’s no action behind it. It leaves the impression to many that a company believes it’s done its part in supporting Black people. Apple Music's global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B, Ebro Darden agrees, telling Complex that true change comes from corporations asking themselves those uncomfortable questions. “Look at your corporation in the mirror and say, ‘Have we actually done things that can change the Black community, like providing jobs? In what ways can our corporation participate in that economic change that needs to take place in American society?” Darden says.
- BLM in Education: Increased spending on police, surveillance and zero-tolerance policies has made American schools look and feel more like prisons.[3] Research has found that making schools more prisonlike is not about safety; it is a choice. “Schools serving primarily students of color are more likely to rely on more intense surveillance measures than other schools,” Jason P. Nance of the University of Florida reported in an article in the Emory Law Journal.
Films/Documentaries
- Eyes on the Prize
Call Number: E185.61 .E93 1986 v3
Eyes on the Prize recounts the fight to end decades of discrimination and segregation. It is the story of the people — young and old, male and female, northern and southern — who, compelled by a meeting of conscience and circumstance, worked to eradicate a world where whites and blacks could not go to the same school, ride the same bus, vote in the same election, or participate equally in society. It was a world in which peaceful demonstrators were met with resistance and brutality — in short, a reality that is now nearly incomprehensible to many young Americans. 7 Videodiscs: Disc 1-3 tell the story of America's civil rights years from 1954 to 1965; Disc 4-7 examine the new America from 1966 to 1985, from community power to the human alienation of urban poverty.
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Call Number: PN1997.2.D6 B53 2016
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.
- 13th: Netflix
The 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution abolished chattel slavery. But it also included a provision many people don't know about and that is what this documentary brings to view. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist." Ava DuVernay's 13th is a documentary about how the Thirteenth Amendment led to mass incarceration in the United States, but it's also a gorgeous, evocative, and maddening exploration of words: of their power, their roots, their permanence. In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.
- Slavery by Another Name by PBS Distribution: Sam Pollard, producer, director (1 videodisc; 90 min.)
Call Number: E185.2 .S53 2012
Slavery by Another Name is a 90-minute documentary that challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters.
- The Central Park Five
Call Number: 364.153 Cen
The Central Park Five is a 2012 documentary film about the Central Park jogger case, directed by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns, and her husband David McMahon. It covers the arrests, interrogations, trials, convictions and vacating the convictions of the five men who were teenagers in 1989 at the time of the case. It was released in the US on November 23, 2012.
- I Am Not Your Negro
Call Number: PN1997.2 .B196 2017
Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material. A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
Notable Quotes
Ida B. Wells
James Baldwin
Desmond Tutu
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Small Towns Unite in Protest for Change
- Small Towns Unite in Protest for Change
The protests which resulted following the May death of George Floyd has culminated into the largest civil rights movement in U.S. History.
Wearing Scrubs to Mitigate Deadly Prejudice
As a urology resident, I spend up to 70 hours a week at the hospital. I wear scrubs to the operating room and through long hospital shifts. And, of course, I wear a gown and other personal protective equipment over my scrubs when caring for patients with covid-19 in Brooklyn.
Even when I’m not there, though, I wear my medical scrubs everywhere. I wear scrubs and a mask when I’m shopping at the grocery store, rollerblading home from work and even meeting up with friends, always seeking to preemptively exonerate my blackness with my professional garb.