A List of Ways You Can Help Support the Black Lives Matter Movement

Some of us may be feeling pretty powerless right now, but that can change if you take action, whether that’s through donating, signing petitions, or educating yourself.

If You Want to Donate:

• https://blacklivesmatter.com. Donate to the actual Black Lives Matter campaign. 

• https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd. Donate to the George Floyd Memorial Fund.

• https://www.gofundme.com/f/9v4q2-justice-for-breonna-taylor. Donate to the Justice for Breonna Taylor fund. 

• https://secure.givelively.org/donate/the-bail-project. Donate to The Bail Project to help get protesters out of jail and end mass incarceration in the United States.

• https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice. Donate to the American Civil Liberties Union. 

• https://fairfight.com. Donate to this Georgia-based civil society group that does national work to ensure voter enfranchisement and voter education. Founded by former Congresswoman Stacey Abrams. 

• https://www.joincampaignzero.org. Donate to Campaign Zero aiming to end police brutality. 

• https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6857/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=15780&_ga=2.187165864.1602954306.1591044385-2004584457.1591044385. Donate to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 

• https://marshap.org. Donate here to support black members of the LGBTQ+ community.

• https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn. Split your donation among multiple organizations at this one-stop-shop link. 

If You Want to Sign Petitions:

• https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/. Sign this petition to defund the police. Defunding police departments merely means taking some of the money allocated to police departments and reinvesting those taxpayer dollars directly into communities that need the most help. 

• https://www.naacp.org/campaigns/we-are-done-dying/. Sign this NAACP petition to launch a federal investigation of George Floyd’s death and advocate for sweeping federal reform of the justice system.

• https://www.change.org/p/united-states-supreme-court-end-qualified-immunity-0f4e3cca-05e8-4bc7-a77a-180fd42c847b?recruiter=1101023561&recruited_by_id=9547e8a0-a3b4-11ea-a35d-ff3ad1cc9269&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard. Sign this Change.org petition to end qualified immunity for police officers, making it easier for them to be held accountable for their actions. Note: There has been some controversy regarding where funds given to causes on Change.org are directed, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to donate on that site. 

• https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a32801350/how-to-help-petition-reopen-case-black-lives-matter-sandra-bland-tamir-rice-trayvon-martin/. This link will take you to a page with links to several petitions to reopen cases where police brutality resulted in deaths.  

• https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSrT26HMWX-_hlLfiyy9s95erjkOZVJdroXYkU-miaHRk58duAnJIUWKxImRkTITsYhwaFkghS8sfIF/pub. This Google Doc includes links to multiple petitions and also includes letter templates to use when lobbying representatives. You may need to open this doc with an email that is not your MCPS email. 

If You Want to Educate Yourself:

• Watch 13th on Netflix. Description from Netflix: “In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.” Directed by academy award-winning director Ava DuVerney.

• Watch Selma on nearly any streaming service for free. This film, also by Ava DuVerney, takes viewers inside Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for civil rights.

• Read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Follow the story of an unnamed black narrator as he is thrust into the exciting and mysterious Harlem scene after growing up in the deep south. This acclaimed classic provides timeless commentary on race relations, power struggles, the politics of race and identity. 

• Listen to Code Switch on Apple Podcasts, which was trending at the #1 spot earlier last week. 

• Read Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum. This book touches on the psychology of race and why starting to talk about race at a young age may help effect positive change. 

• Read A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism And Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet Washington to learn about environmental racism and how it is affecting the IQs of people of color.

• Watch LA 92 about the LA riots following the murder of Rodney King, and see where the chant, “No justice, no peace” originated from.

• Listen to Throughline from NPR to trace the origins of systemic racism in this country. 

• https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/06/06/871023438/this-list-of-books-films-and-podcasts-about-racism-is-a-start-not-a-panacea. For more recommendations, click this link.