Movement for Black Lives

MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES. Distinct from the Black Lives Matter global network, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a consortium of more than 150 Black-led organizations across the United States cohering around a Black left agenda for political power and wellbeing. While the organizations making up its “ecosystem” do not represent a single political orientation, the M4BL designates its politics as abolitionist, anti-capitalist, and queer feminist.

Founded in December 2014, M4BL emerged in the wake of the Ferguson, Missouri, uprisings following the police murder of Michael Brown Jr and the police murder of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, weeks earlier. The Ferguson protests ignited waves of solidarity protests across the country and internationally. The uprisings persisted through August 2014, with eruptions through the end of the year associated with developments in the Mike Brown case. These events also fostered media attention on issues of police violence against African Americans and politicized a new generation of Black activists and organizers. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, initially popularized in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and reanimated on social media, began to permeate popular culture and politics. Many M4BL’s founders were Ferguson- or St. Louis-based organizers and activists. Others traveled to Ferguson to participate in the protests or offer technical assistance and build infrastructure for the uprising.

In an effort to sustain the energy generated by the 2014 uprisings, a group of organizations including Blackbird, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Black Lives Matter, Black Youth Project 100, Dream Defenders, Million Hoodies, Organization for Black Struggle, Ferguson Action, Southerners on New Ground, and Project South convened the M4BL national convention in Cleveland in July 2015. The meeting attracted more than 2,000 attendees for discussions about racialized state violence, with special attention to families of Black people killed by police. Attendees also participated in workshops on structural racism, labor organizing, immigration, preparation for the 2016 presidential elections, self-defense, LGBTQI+ issues, and organizing and direct action basics. The convention presented organizers with a mandate to translate the visions generated during the discussions into actual plans for action by Black communities.

This mandate drove the development of the M4BL policy forum, which brought representatives from dozens of organizations together for further discussions that would lead to a platform called “The Vision for Black Lives” (V4BL). The V4BL, inspired in part by programs authored by the African National Congress and the Black Radical Congress, articulated a set of political ideas backed by sample policies. Released in August 2016, the V4BL was the work of more than 50 organizations and dozens of individuals and reflected the breadth and contradictions of its authors’ politics. The V4BL presented an expansive list of issues effecting Black communities: policing and imprisonment, reparations, economic justice, foreign policy, health, education, and climate crisis. The V4BL generated support from sectors of the left in that it represented an important statement from a new generation of Black leadership. M4BL’s anti-Zionism and support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) came under attack by Zionists, however, who characterized this policy as anti-semitic. M4BL held its position, weathering the attack, and maintained its solidarity with Palestine. M4BL also maintained a commitment to internationalism and sent delegations to Brazil, Cuba, and South Africa.

The M4BL program grew to include mass engagement, including a project to engage Black voters called the Electoral Justice Project and the creation of a united front called The Rising Majority. The Electoral Justice Project gained prominence by becoming involved in the 2018 mi-term elections through projects such as “Wakanda the Vote,” which registered voters at screenings of the film Black Panther. The Electoral Justice Voter Fund held town halls and caucuses across the country to uncover Black voters’ priorities. The Electoral Justice League trained emerging Black leaders in the skills to run electoral campaigns.

In 2019, M4BL released a five-year plan, “M4BL Project 2024: Black Power Rising.” Recognizing that despite its cultural impact, the organization addressed its shortcomings in achieving the mass and political power to reach its goals. M4BL planned to release an updated version of the V4BL developed in consultation with Black LGBTIQ+ and disability justice communities.

Twenty-twenty saw M4BL project itself more forcefully on the national stage as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and nationwide Black-led uprisings. After nation-wide uprisings erupted following the police murders of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor and the vigilante murder of Ahmad Arbery, M4BL sponsored “6.19” as a national weekend of action in commemoration of Juneteenth. It also provided tools to support local direct action and promoted the national demand to defund the police. As the state targeted Black leadership of the protests, M4BL also developed tools to reduce risks at protests and to prepare for potential FBI encounters. The Rising Majority hosted webinars on the pandemic and collaborated with organized labor on the Strike for Black Lives to draw attention to the impacts of COVID-19 and structural racism on workers. The Electoral Justice Project drafted federal legislation, the BREATHE Act, aimed at divesting federal resources from imprisonment and policing, investing in “non-punitive, non-carceral” community safety, and increasing health and equity in Black communities. Following the Democratic and Republican national conventions, the Electoral Justice Project hosted the Black National Convention, highlighting M4BL’s political vision.

Kelley, Robin D.G. "What Does Black Lives Matter Want?" Boston Review, August 17, 2016.

Ransby, Barbara. Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018.

Reed, Kayla and Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson "A New World Is Possible: Defund Police and Fund Black Lives" Essence, June 12, 2020.

Movement for Black Lives. Website. https://m4bl.org