The Center for Popular Democracy along with other national partners is committed to building support for the Movement for Black Lives. We saw this support realized last month in the planning and facilitation of two major convenings which brought movement activists together to envision the movement’s trajectory and future.

#Law4BlackLives was a two-day gathering of lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers from across the country to engage in conversations about how to build a world where #BlackLivesMatter. Held at Riverside Church and Columbia University in Harlem, NY, policy makers and advocates engaged in strategic discussions about the place of the law in supporting and strengthening the current movement towards liberation. Marbre Stahly-Butts, Deputy Director of Racial Justice at the Center for Popular Democracy, co-moderated the opening plenary panel, “The State of Our Movement” as well as a panel on local policy reform. In the opening plenary, grassroots organizers from Los Angeles to Ferguson and Madison to New York City reflected on the current state of the movement and spoke to the urgency of building the power of the #BlackLives Matter movement with lawyers and legal advocates.

The Movement for Black Lives Convening was held in the last week of July in Cleveland, Ohio. Over 1,300 Black organizers, advocates, artists, community members and media makers gathered in Cleveland to build community and engage in strategic discussions about how to continue to build and grow the ongoing movement for racial justice. The convening included three days of panels, a People’s Assembly, a healing space, a freedom school and trips to a local urban farm and community center. The conversations focused on how to support the groundswell of energy and enthusiasm for transformation inspired by the brave tenacity of young Black activists from Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond. The convening also had a series of strategic discussions about how to leverage the power of the current movement into concrete cultural, political and social change.

A number of Center for Popular Democracy partners traveled from far and wide to attend. A delegation from Rise-Up Georgia traveled by bus from Atlanta to Cleveland to bring members to the convening. Additionally, members of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, Wisconsin Jobs Now, Organization for Black Struggle and Make the Road New York attended.

The Center for Popular Democracy continues to work with members of the movement to support national coordination and organizing around these issues and to build on the momentum of these convenings.