Law enforcement groups in multiple states have put pressure on domestic violence organizations for standing against racism.
— MELISSA JELTSEN, HUFFPOST
Over the summer, Embrace, a domestic violence organization in northwestern Wisconsin, decided to hang Black Lives Matter signs at its four locations.
It was a small but meaningful sign of allyship amid a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism. Embrace serves survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in four rural, predominantly white counties ― Rusk, Washburn, Barron and Price ― and Katie Bement, the executive director, wanted to ensure people of color felt comfortable visiting it.
“We were approaching it from an accessibility standpoint,” she told HuffPost over Zoom on Thursday. “We needed to show that we’re safe for those communities of color.”
— Credits & Context
Featured Image, HuffPost
Full article @ HuffPost
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people. The broader movement and its related organizations typically advocate against police violence towards black people, as well as for various other policy changes considered to be related to black liberation.
In July 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin 17 months earlier, in February 2012. The movement became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans: Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a city near St. Louis—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election. The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016. The overall Black Lives Matter movement is a decentralized network of activists with no formal hierarchy.
Source – Black Lives Matter (Updated: 15 October 2020) Wikipedia. Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter, (Accessed: 18 October 2020)