In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May of 2020, protests broke out in Minneapolis and quickly spread across the country. These protests added to the calls for justice in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor had been killed by police only months earlier.[i] Spreading first across the country, from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Tulsa, and later into the streets of Vancouver, Paris, Berlin and London, calls to make Black lives matter quickly spanned the globe.[ii] During this time, support for Black Lives Matter skyrocketed, increasing by 68% in just two weeks.[iii]
This increase in support following widespread protests is not necessarily predictable. In fact, across history, every major social movement has been met with countermovement activity bent on suppressing activists’ demands.[iv] Previous research on social movements does not explain the increasing numbers of BLM supporters, given the field’s focus on leaders and figureheads.[v] Without a clear sense of the unique influences of the current moment on the surge in support for Black Lives Matter, racial justice advocates are less equipped to harness this energy for the future actions necessary to truly maintain momentum in achieving equity and justice. A new project by Dr. Andre E. Johnson and Dr. Amanda Nell Edgar entitled Black Lives Matter: Perspectives from the Ground fills this gap. The project, which includes assistance from student researchers DiArron Morrison and Peter Boyd, aims to collect the ideas and perspectives of the individual participants who contributed to the Black Lives Matter movement’s popularity during the summer and fall of 2020. The project has been funded by a Research Cultivation Grant from the National Communication Association.
Since the BLM movement is not predicated upon one leader or any institution to legitimize their efforts, according to Morrison and Trimble, the way they legitimize themselves is through the “use of confrontation and the spotlight of established platforms to state their case.”[vi] In other words, the BLM movement truly is a movement by the people. BLM represents a growing social movement grounded both in traditional social movement methods and contemporary online organizing. Started in 2012 by Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter grounds itself in the “experiences of Black people who actively resist de-humanization.”[vii] As we assert in our first book, “while definitions may vary by regional and local goals, BLM’s national online platform defines the movement in terms of both policy and ideals, striving to highlight and dismantle anti-Black racism and white supremacy and the ways these systems target Black lives.”[viii] As they elaborate, BLM “is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, [their] contributions to this society, and [their] resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”[ix]
In their previous work, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, Edgar and Johnson explored the meanings of both BLM and #ALM within the city of Memphis. The book’s attention in communication and related fields, including recognition as the National Communication Association’s African American Communication and Culture Outstanding Scholarly Book Award, prompted Johnson and Edgar to question how perspectives on the BLM movement may have been different for those in other regions of the U.S. Additionally, in the years between their 2016 study and the murder of George Floyd, the United States saw numerous surges in support for BLM that incorporate both new voices and those who began their social justice advocacy before the 2013 emergence of the original BLM hashtag.
In October 2020, Johnson, Edgar, Morrison and Boyd conducted focus group interviews with BLM supporters across the United States. Using Zoom to speak with forty-five individuals — from participants who had been involved with racial justice activism since long before BLM to those who attended their first march that summer — the researchers asked participants about their motivation to join the movement, their interpersonal discussions about racial justice, their sense of the movements connection to their political and religious investments, their strategies for managing their sense of physical vulnerability in the context of COVID-19 and increased white supremacist and state violence against protesters.
Beginning in the spring of 2021, the research team will begin analyzing the nearly 500 pages of interview notes they collected. The project will eventually be published as a book which will map the ways BLM participants understand the meanings, roles, solidarity and limitations of the movement during the tumultuous year that was 2020. Black Lives Matter: Perspectives from the Ground will thus build on Edgar and Johnson’s previous work to explore new questions, particularly centering the role of participants’ vulnerability — to police and state violence, to white nationalist terrorism and to a global pandemic — in their understandings of BLM.
This project will be the first book to engage with Black Lives Matter participants across the country, highlighting not only the importance of the BLM movement, but also demonstrating the importance of everyday people in driving and sustaining movements for racial justice specifically, and social change generally. Ultimately, this project extends Johnson and Edgar’s research and political commitments by approaching BLM through the thought and feeling of the people, capturing a perspective before it can be lost to time.
Notes
[1] “A Timeline of the George Floyd and Anti-Police Brutality Protests,” United States, Aljazeea, updated June 11, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/timeline-george-floyd-protests-200610194807385.html
[1] “Why the Killing of George Floyd Sparked an American Uprising,” US: Protests, Time, updated June 4, 2020, https://time.com/5847967/george-floyd-protests-trump/; “Global Anger Grows Over George Floyd Death, and Becomes an Anti-Trump Cudgel,” Race and America, The New York Times, updated June 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/world/asia/george-floyd-protest-global.html
[1] “How Public Opinion Has Moved on Black Lives Matter,” Race and America, The New York Times, updated June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/10/upshot/black-lives-matter-attitudes.html
[1] Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, Third Edition (London: Routledge, 2015).
[1] Amanda Nell Edgar and Andre E. Johnson, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter (Lanham, MD: Lexington Book, 2018).
[1] Morrison and Trimble, “Still Work to Be Done,” 139.
[1] “Herstory,” Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/.
[1] Edgar and Johnson, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, 6.
[1] “Herstory.”
[i] “A Timeline of the George Floyd and Anti-Police Brutality Protests,” United States, Aljazeea, updated June 11, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/timeline-george-floyd-protests-200610194807385.html
[ii] “Why the Killing of George Floyd Sparked an American Uprising,” US: Protests, Time, updated June 4, 2020, https://time.com/5847967/george-floyd-protests-trump/; “Global Anger Grows Over George Floyd Death, and Becomes an Anti-Trump Cudgel,” Race and America, The New York Times, updated June 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/world/asia/george-floyd-protest-global.html
[iii] “How Public Opinion Has Moved on Black Lives Matter,” Race and America, The New York Times, updated June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/10/upshot/black-lives-matter-attitudes.html?auth=linked-google
[iv] Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, Third Edition (London: Routledge, 2015).
[v] Amanda Nell Edgar and Andre E. Johnson, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter (Lanham, MD: Lexington Book, 2018).
[vi] Morrison and Trimble, “Still Work to Be Done,” 139.
[vii] “Herstory,” Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/.
[viii] Edgar and Johnson, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, 6.
[ix] “Herstory.”