A decade of racial justice activism transformed politics, but landmark reforms remain elusive

WASHINGTON – Cori Bush went from helping lead an informal movement for racial justice to winning two terms as a congresswoman from Missouri, with an office decorated with photos of families who lost loved ones to police violence. One photo is by Michael Brown.

Brown’s death 10 years ago in Ferguson, Missouri, was a defining moment for the racial justice movement in the United States. It put a global spotlight on long-standing demands for reforms to systems that subject millions of people to everything from economic discrimination to murder.

Many activists like Bush went from proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” to running for seats in statehouses, city councils, prosecutors’ offices, and the halls of Congress, and won. Local legislation has been passed to do everything from dismantling prisons and jails and reforming schools to eliminating hair discrimination.

At least 30 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted laws aimed at curbing abusive behavior since 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. And while the last decade of racial justice activism has transformed politics, historic reforms remain elusive, more than three dozen activists, elected officials and political operatives told The Associated Press.

“As we look at the progress we’ve made, we see ebbs and flows,” said Bush, who was a longtime pastor and community organizer before becoming a Democratic representative. “We are still dealing with militarized policing in communities. “We are still dealing with police shootings.”

A decade of activist achievements

As the new generation of cellphone-wielding Black activists rewrote the national conversation about policing, issues of public safety and racial justice moved to the center of American politics. Police body cameras are widespread. Tactics such as chokeholds have been banned nationwide.

Ferguson spurred an immediate change in how communities approach police reform and misconduct, said Svante Myrick, who was the youngest mayor of Ithaca, New York, from 2011 to 2021 before becoming president of People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy organization. cluster.

At least 150 reforms were approved in localities and states across the country.

“I know that someone’s life was saved, that there was an officer, that there was an encounter where a police officer might have made a different decision if there hadn’t been 400 days of protests during the Ferguson uprising,” Bush said in an interview. “Maybe the world was waking up to the fact that it can’t just be an external strategy, but there has to be an internal strategy as well.”

One such example is Tishaura Jones, the first Black woman to lead the city of St. Louis, who has worked to end St. Louis’ “arrest and incarceration” policing model and place more emphasis on social service programs. to help neighborhoods. with the highest crime rates.

It’s a pattern that a new generation of leaders is putting into practice across the country.

“I am someone who entered politics through the Black Lives Matter movement after years of witnessing unjust murders against black and brown people,” said Chi Ossé, a 26-year-old member of the New York City Council.

He used social media to organize protests for racial justice after white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, who was Black, in 2020, sparking a massive new wave of protests. “The result is that I have a different leadership style within my own community than previous City Council members who have represented this district.”

There is work to do

At first, Washington lawmakers were wary of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2015, then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told three Black Lives Matter activists that they should focus on changing laws instead of hearts. And a 2016 memo from the Democratic Party’s House campaign arm called on politicians to limit the number of Black Lives Matter activists present at public events or meet with organizers privately.

Ferguson marked a new era. Perhaps for the first time, a highly visible mass protest movement for justice for a single victim was born organically – not convened by members of the clergy nor centered in the church – and often linked by mobile phones and sustained by hip-hop.

Brown’s death and the treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters in the days that followed also led many Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders to an internal reckoning. Organizations and individuals of all ages felt compelled to stay out of it.

“We have made progress,” Bush said. “I wanted to bring the movement to the House of Representatives and I feel like I’ve been able to do that.”

A movement meets a national political change

In 2015, Ferguson activists were welcomed to the White House to serve on the Obama administration’s 21st Century Policing Task Force.

While Donald Trump adopted some criminal justice reforms such as the First Step Act, he continued to oppose racial justice activists throughout his administration and the movement was met with disdain from the right. In 2016, the then-Republican presidential candidate called Black Lives Matter “divisive” and blamed President Barack Obama for worsening race relations in the country.

Trump was president during the racial justice protests that emerged in the summer of 2020 following Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. During the protests he posted: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” At the time, she signed an executive order encouraging better policing practices, but some criticized her for failing to recognize what they see as systemic racial bias in policing.

Early in his term, during a 2017 speech in New York, Trump appeared to advocate for harsher treatment of people in police custody, speaking disdainfully of the police practice of protecting the heads of handcuffed suspects while being placed on patrols.

Trump’s election caused many racial justice activists to shift their focus from individual police departments to how federal policies fund and protect police misconduct.

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis

After a grueling Democratic presidential primary that saw candidates debate how best to advance racial justice, the movement was thrust back into politics when Chauvin murdered Floyd in May 2020.

The ensuing global protests for racial justice upended American politics, surprising even many members of the movement who had spent years advocating for policies that suddenly entered the mainstream, such as community emergency response teams, restrictions on police tactics and even redirection of police funding.

Floyd’s family members appeared at the 2020 Democratic National Convention after global protests; The following year, the party introduced a bill that would have enacted sweeping reforms to police accountability in its name.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would have banned chokeholds and no-contact warrants, like the one that led Louisville police to kill Breonna Taylor in her own home. It would also have created a database with a list of officers who were disciplined for serious misconduct, among other measures.

The House passed it in 2021, but the Senate failed to reach consensus.

Stand outside or be at the table

Ella Jones didn’t see herself running for office before the Ferguson protests. Jones, a minister and businesswoman, felt called to protest Brown’s murder, but said local Democratic leaders told her to run for mayor of Ferguson. She won a seat on the city council and was eventually elected mayor.

“You can stand outside and yell at the system. However, you must be at the table where policy is made. So some people can go into politics. Some people can create nonprofits, but it will take all of us working together to make the change we really need,” Jones said. “You have to be at the table where policies are formulated.”

Ferguson Prosecutor Wesley Bell vowed to address police misconduct.

Bell told the AP in 2020 that lawmakers should take a hard look at laws that offer protections against prosecution for police officers that ordinary citizens don’t have.

“We see those types of laws all over the country, and it’s something that handcuffs prosecutors in many ways when it comes to prosecuting officers who have committed unlawful use of force or police shootings,” Bell said.

In August he defeated Bush in a bitter Democratic primary for the US House of Representatives.

Bush said he doesn’t know what he will do when he leaves Congress.

“But the fight is still here and my boots are not far from me,” he said. “So people probably should have asked themselves: Is she more dangerous in Congress or outside of it?”