Black Lives Matter is deeply committed to changing policy as a fundamental part of our liberation work.
We are actively pushing forward new policies that will dismantle punitive systems and reimagine a society where Black communities have full and equitable access to essential resources.
Our vision includes abundant food, quality education, stable housing, comprehensive healthcare, clean water, breathable air, and everything crucial for personal and collective safety.
As we approach our 12th anniversary this Sunday, our policy work is more critical than ever. We face increasing efforts to restrict our freedoms and implement policies harmful to Black communities.
Below, we're highlighting key ways we've called for and advanced policy change this past year.
A Full Circle Moment: Honoring Elaine Brown and Continuing the Legacy
Black Lives Matter was proud to recognize a full circle moment for a living legend, Elaine Brown. In 1974, Elaine made history as the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. Under her leadership in the 1970s, the Black Panther Party significantly expanded its community programs, including free breakfast programs for children and health clinics, laying the foundation for community activism.
Tired of waiting for the government to answer this call, Sister Brown took matters into her own hands. For the past decade, she has been at the forefront of a revitalization project for the Black community of West Oakland, California, through her non-profit, Oakland and the World Enterprises. This project, a 100% affordable housing community, is a game changer and is now fully operational. It is called The Black Panther, a name that honors her revolutionary roots and inspires consciousness and action.
In tandem with this housing project, at the same site on 7th and Campbell Streets, she launched five cooperatively owned businesses by formerly incarcerated and other socioeconomically marginalized individuals: a fitness center, a tech business center, an urban farm, a neighborhood market, and a restaurant. The primary goal is not only to develop economic survival pathways but also to create a model for building Black community wealth and self-determination.
BLM proudly presented Elaine Brown with $1 million to fund the Black Panther building in West Oakland and the Black-owned businesses that will make it thrive.
DC Working Group discussing public safety
On March 12, we went to Washington, D.C. to participate in a series of critical conversations on public safety. We may have an administration that is at odds with everything that our movement stands for—but there are still plenty of folks in Congress and in the government who want to make our communities safer, stronger, and are critical partners in our work. That includes elected officials like Rep. Al Green.
Rep. Al Green standing up to Trump
First – Rep. Al Green from Texas protested against Trump’s State of the Union hate speech and made his dissent known loudly and proudly!
Then – 10 Democrats voted to censure Rep. Al Green for interrupting Trump’s hate-filled speech to the joint session of Congress.
Far too many Democrats want to act like they are better than Trump, but when the going gets tough, they fall in line with him.
What do fascism and authoritarianism look like? It’s the slow erasure of the right to dissent and the right to protest. It’s any and all opposition getting wiped out.
The fight to defend BLM Plaza in DC
Republicans are using the language of “government restraint” to justify their real goal: wiping away a powerful symbol of resistance, progress, and the collective demand for racial justice.
They can whitewash our mural, but we will not stop until we fulfill our liberation agenda. DC will not be muted, and we will not be erased. Black Lives Matter—yesterday, today, tomorrow, and always.
Department of Justice Dismissing Police Investigations
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced in May that they're dismissing lawsuits against the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments, despite findings of a clear pattern of violations of Black people’s civil rights by said authorities. As a reminder, these lawsuits were based on investigations into the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
The Trump administration doesn’t care about the very REAL patterns of abuse and discrimination that these consent decrees were based on. They’d rather give the police free rein to continue killing Black people with little to no consequences.
These are measures that WE fought for. WE protested for. WE risked our lives for. And WE are not going to accept this.
South Africa
So first, Trump effectively suspended the U.S. refugee admissions program in January.
Then, they welcomed white “refugees” from South Africa with open arms, arguing that the pause of the refugee program is subject to exceptions when the refugees “could be assimilated easily into our country.”
After that, Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, repeating false claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa despite the South African President’s attempts to correct him.
It’s clear: Trump, no matter how often he is faced with FACTS, is going to continue the racist narrative he’s believed for decades. The narrative? That white people are under attack.
Let’s be clear: The people of South Africa are not carrying out a white genocide. What’s really happening is a movement for reparations to take back what was stolen. And the world’s elites are terrified.
BLM stands in solidarity with all movements fighting for Black economic liberation—because we know that real freedom isn’t just about legal rights, it’s about power.
Trump’s Executive Order to Further Qualified Immunity
This executive order essentially extends the concept of qualified immunity to the criminal sphere. But it calls for much more than that:
Encourages return to stop-and-frisk, bogus “gang enforcement”, and preemptive arrests,
Boosts funding, grants, and military-grade equipment (like 1033 program gear) to police departments,
Promotes AI surveillance and predictive policing tools,
Revokes DOJ consent decree powers unless approved at the highest level,
Allows the DOJ to override local jurisdictions deemed “unsafe,” and,
Threatens to withhold federal funding from cities that reduce police budgets or limit cooperation with federal law enforcement.
...not to mention the horrifying call to 'unleash the police.'
In essence, Trump and the rest of his far-right regime think that implementing harsher punishments and enforcement, sending more money to the police, and giving them as much unchecked power as possible is how we prevent crime. We know that’s not true. “Law and order” doesn’t work.
Greenpeace Lawsuit
Greenpeace was just successfully sued for over $660 million by the pipeline company Energy Transfer (a.k.a. Big Oil) over the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. We call BS.
This is about more than one community or one pipeline. The right to peacefully protest is being taken away right in front of us.
Energy Transfer is silencing our voices, and they are trying to DESTROY Greenpeace with this $660 million fine. Our fight for progress will not be set back by one lawsuit. We will keep fighting back alongside Greenpeace to protect our communities.
Equity Week is a powerful, weeklong celebration of Black LGBTQ+/SGL brilliance, leadership, and movement-building that occurred June 11-14 in Washington, D.C.
Equity Week is NBJC's signature week of action, a sacred gathering of changemakers, artists, advocates, and allies. Together, we pushed for transformative policies, celebrated Black queer excellence, and honored our freedom fighters.
A Historic Filibuster
Senator Cory Booker spent April 1st breaking the record for lengthiest remarks delivered in the Senate. As part of his historic filibuster, Sen. Booker spoke for 25 hours straight, reminding us all that the power of the people is greater than the people in power.
This is the type of commitment this moment demands. Lives are literally at stake for the people affected by some of Trump’s most heinous policies. It’s also worth noting that Sen. Booker claims the title of longest speech from the previous record-holder, avowed racist Strom Thurmond, who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957. 🙄
Protest. Boycott. Do not comply. That’s what we should all be focused on. There’s nothing we can’t do in community. We keep us safe.
Bye Elon
Elon Musk says he’s walking away from the Trump administration—but after the catastrophic damage he’s caused, we’re not letting him slip out quietly.
Whether Elon is actually leaving or not one thing is clear: we’re forever going to hold Elon accountable for all the harm that he’s caused.
The order calls for a major sanitization of the Smithsonian Institution and historical sites all across the US—aka an erasure of Black History and important stories that the Smithsonian tells.
The order directs JD Vance to seek the removal of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian's museums and research centers. No seriously, read that again.
This is a complete whitewash of American history by eliminating critical contexts related to slavery, racism, and other challenging aspects of America’s past and present.
You can pretty much bet that means:
Confederate statues are going back up
They’re going to do everything in their power to shut down the African American History Museum
We already fought back once and got Harriet Tubman’s image re-instated on the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad page. Our history matters.
Our grassroots movement is pushing for Black liberation every single day. We are striving to create a world where Black people do so much more than just survive. It’s time we thrive.
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