BUILDING BLACK POLITICAL POWER AT THE INTERSECTION OF MOVEMENT AND ELECTORAL JUSTICE
The contemporary Black liberation movement often referred to as the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) or Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) first arose in early 2013 in reaction to the murder of Trayvon Martin and took on increasing momentum during the Ferguson uprising in 2014 after the killing of Michael Brown. While the movement galvanized around these pivotal organizing moments regarding state-sanctioned violence and brutality — it has become a broad movement grounded in a vision for Black liberation.
In this groundbreaking report Sojourn Strategies in partnership with ThinkRubix and the Electoral Justice Project explores the impact of Black social movement engagement on voting and other forms of civic participation among young Black people
THE POWER OF BUILDING A POLITICAL HOME: BLACK CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND MOVEMENT ORGANIZING
Black people’s views, as always, are complicated and multifaceted, and knowing how to make sense of the nuance and intersectionality within the Black community is as important as ever. 2020 was a year of disruptions that had a disproportionate impact on Black people – from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the continued and increased police violence targeting Black people. Yet, in a year of disruptions Black people still turned out to vote in record numbers and in ways that were decisive to the electoral outcomes in many states. This report begins to unpack this dichotomy of Black political disillusionment and continued civic participation.
