While much focus has been placed on Black Lives Matter activism in response to police and civilian murders of Black men and women, the contributors argue that Black activism in this era has addressed a broader range of issues in a wide array of settings, both on the street and inside institutions and communities. This Era of Black Activism includes chapters on this era of Black activism from 2000-2022. It describes how previous activism has influenced this generation, while showing innovations in political approaches, leadership and organizational formations, and the use of social and other media for movement purposes. Topics include the innovations of #BlackLives Matter as a movement; the Florida activist group Dream Defenders; policing and discrepancies in reporting on Ferguson; the role of citizen cameras in Black activism; social media for Black community coping and well-being; BIPOC Gay Power activism vs. Gay Pride; academic activism by Black and White professors; corporate responses to #BLM; #MeToo and healing within the Black community; Black health activism and the Covid pandemic; and bridging activism and policy for a new social contract. It also offers an additional bibliography on Black activism for environmental justice, athlete anti-racist activism, and the role of the Black Church in this era.
Mary Marcel is associate professor of information design and corporate communication at Bentley University. Edith Joachimpillai is principal managing partner at Copper and Cobalt, a global consulting firm based in the Boston area.
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: This Era of Black Activism (Edith Joachimpillai and Mary Marcel) Part 1: Black Activism 1. #BlackLivesMatter: Innovative Black Resistance (Jozie Nummi, Carly Jennings and Joe Feagin) 2. Dream Defenders: The First Ten Years and the Transition to This Era of Black Activism (Mary Marcel) 3. Protecting Whom? Serving What?: Police Accountability in Ferguson Protests in 2014 (Jozie Nummi and Amorette T. Young) 4. The Camera as "Moral Agent" and Testimonial for Black Reparative Justice (Joyce Hope Scott) 5. Community and Communal Coping: The Role of Social Media as a Resource for Black Activism and Black Refuge (David Stamps) 6. From Protests to Pride and Back Again: A Look at New York Pride's Origins and the Modern BIPOC Queer Movement to Reclaim It (Moussa Hassoun) 7. Challenging "Taken-for-Granted" Assumptions in Academia: Scholarship as Activism (Anne Rawls) 8. The Black Professor (Utz McKnight and Greg Austin) Part 2: The Effects of Black Activism on Institutions 9. An Investigation of Fortune 100 Companies' Responses to the 2020 BLM Movement (Ziyuan Zhou) 10. Black Activism from the Ivory Tower: Cultural Betrayal, Sexual Abuse, and Healing for Black Women and Girls (Jennifer M. Gomez) 11. Racism, Poverty and Health Oh My! The Black Voice: Leading in Unprecedented Times (Melissa Hector) 12. From Black Dehumanization to Repair: The Long Road Through Death, Poverty, Protests and Policy to Rebuild the Social Contract (Edith Joachimpillai) Appendix: Additional Bibliographic Resources by Mary Marcel A. Anti-Black Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Activism B. Black Athlete Activism C. Black Church Activism Contributor Biographies
This Era of Black Activism is an excellent collection of essays written by diverse scholars from many disciplines aimed at understanding and memorializing collective efforts to challenge the racial status quo in America over the past few decades with the goal of recognizing the humanity of black people and the need to end all forms of antiblack violence, including the collective efforts of black athletes. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in social Justice and social movements. -- Lori Latrice Martin, author of Racial Realism and the History of Black People in America
