Black Liberation Notes

The Black Lives Matter movement gained prominence in June 2015 after police in McKinney, Texas, attacked Black children at a swimming party. The incident sparked widespread outrage and highlighted systemic issues of racism and police brutality. The aggressive cop was forced to resign days later, signaling the power of public protests and social media in driving accountability.

The demonstration validated their right to resist and stand up to racism and racist violence, affirming that they were right to protest from the very beginning. The Black Lives Matter movement has created a feeling of pride and combativeness among a generation that this country has tried to kill, imprison, and simply disappear. The protest has been validated, with millions participating globally and raising awareness about ongoing injustices.

There must be more organization and coordination in the move from protest to movement, emphasizing the need for sustained activism to achieve concrete policy changes and the redistribution of power.

Civil War and Black Citizenship:
On April 12, 1865, the American Civil War ended with the Union Army accepting the Confederacy's surrender. This marked a significant turning point in American history, especially for Black citizens. The Union Army included 200,000 Black soldiers, representing their fight for freedom and citizenship. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that citizens of every race and color have the same rights, a critical step toward racial equality. Abraham Lincoln told a crowd of Black people that God has made you free, emphasizing the moral imperative of emancipation.

Freddie Gray and the Gap Between Equality and Freedom:
One hundred and fifty years later, on April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police for making eye contact and running away, a vague reason highlighting racial profiling. By the time he emerged, his voice box had been crushed, his neck snapped, and 80 percent of his spinal cord severed, leading to his death and igniting protests. The gap between formal equality before the law and the self-determination and self-possession inherent in actual freedom reflects a stark reality. The right to be free from oppression and to make determinations about one's life free from duress, coercion, or threat of harm is fundamental.

Black people were not freed into an American dream but into what Malcolm X described as an “American nightmare” of economic inequality and unchecked injustice. One hundred years after Emancipation, African Americans dismantled the last vestiges of legal discrimination with the civil rights movement. However, the excitement of the movement quickly faded as American cities combusted with Black people who were angry and disillusioned at being locked out of accessing the riches of American society. Hundreds of thousands participated in the uprisings in search of resolutions to critical issues such as lead poisoning, rat infestations, hunger and malnutrition, under-employment, poor schools, and persisting poverty.

Liberals and radicals often converged was in the demand that Blacks should have greater political control over their communities, recognizing the importance of local governance. Black electoral politics was a sign of political maturity as the movement left the streets for the poll booth, urban governance, and community control. Some radicals were lured by the possibility of self-governance and community control, seeking alternative ways to address systemic challenges.

The question remained: Could the machinery wielded in the oppression of Blacks now be retooled in the name of Black self-determination?

Freedom and Black Accomplishment:
Freedom has been imagined as inclusion in the mainstream of American society, although there are mixed measures of Black accomplishment and achievement in a country where Black people were never intended to survive as free people. A greater symbol of a certain kind of Black accomplishment than a Black president represents a significant milestone in American history. However, the conditions for many remain dire. We have simultaneously entered a new period of Black protest, Black radicalization, and the birth of a new Black left. Four million Black children live in poverty, one million Black people are incarcerated, and 240,000 Black people lost their homes due to the foreclosure crisis, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in Black savings.

Never before in American history has a Black president presided over the misery of millions of Black people, with the denial of the most basic standards for health, happiness, and basic humanity. Harry Belafonte Jr. recalled his last conversation with Martin Luther King Jr., in which King lamented, "I've come upon something that disturbs me deeply. . . . We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I've come to believe we're integrating into a burning house."

Black life cannot be transformed while the rest of the country burns. The juxtaposition of wealth versus poverty is stark, with 400 billionaires in the United States while 45 million people live in poverty. These facts are interconnected and must be understood in the context of systemic inequities.

The struggle for Black liberation requires going beyond the standard narrative that Black people have come a long way but have a long way to go. Black liberation implies a world where Black people can live in peace, without the constant threat of social, economic, and political woes of a society that places almost no value on the vast majority of Black lives. Black liberation is bound up with the project of human liberation and social transformation.

Radical Reconstructions:
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the Black struggle for equality is ongoing and must adapt and evolve to address new challenges.