A decade of racial justice activism has transformed politics, but groundbreaking 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 brutality. One photo is of Michael Brown.

Brown’s death a decade ago in Ferguson, Missouri, was a defining moment for America’s movement for racial justice. It cast a global spotlight on long-standing demands for reforms to systems that expose 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 halls, state attorneys general, and the halls of Congress — and winning. Local legislation has been passed to do everything from dismantling prisons and reforming schools to eliminating hair discrimination.

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

“When we look at the progress we’ve made, it’s an ebb and flow,” said Bush, who was a longtime community organizer and pastor before becoming a Democratic representative. “We still have militarized policing in communities. We are still dealing with police shootings.”

A decade of activist achievement

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

Ferguson sparked an immediate change in how communities address police reforms and misconduct, said Svante Myrick, who served as the youngest-ever mayor of Ithaca, New York, from 2011 to 2021 before becoming president of People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group. group.

At least 150 reforms have been implemented in localities and states across the country.

“I know that someone’s life was saved, that there was a cop, that there was an encounter where a police officer could have made a different decision if there hadn’t been 400 days of protest during the Ferguson uprising,” Bush said in an interview. “Maybe the world woke up to the fact that it can’t just be an outside strategy, but there has to be an inside 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 and place more emphasis on the “arrest and incarceration” policing model in St. Louis on social service programs to help the neighborhoods. with the highest crime rates.

It is a pattern that a new generation of leaders is putting into practice nationally.

“I am someone who entered politics through the Black Lives Matter movement after years of witnessing the unfair killings of 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 killed black George Floyd in 2020, sparking a new and massive wave of protests. “It has resulted in me having a different type of leadership style within my own community than previous council members who have represented this district.”

There is work to be done

Lawmakers in Washington were initially wary of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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

Ferguson marked a new phase. For perhaps the first time, a highly visible mass protest movement for justice for one victim has arisen organically – not convened by members of the clergy or centered in the church – and often connected via cell phones and supported by hip hop.

Brown’s death and the treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters in the days that followed also brought an internal reckoning to many Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Organizations and individuals of all ages were pushed to get off the sidelines.

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

A movement meets a national political shift

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

Although Donald Trump embraced some criminal justice reforms, such as the First Step Act, he remained opposed to racial justice activists throughout his administration and the movement was met with disdain by the right. In 2016, 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 after the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis. He posted during the protests: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” At the time, he signed an executive order encouraging better police practices, but that was criticized by some for failing to recognize what they see as systemic racial bias in policing.

Earlier in his term, during a 2017 speech in New York, Trump appeared to advocate for harsher treatment of people in police custody, speaking dismissively of the police practice of shielding the heads of handcuffed suspects as they are placed in patrol cars placed.

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

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis

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

The ensuing global protests for racial justice upended American politics and even shocked many in the movement who had spent years advocating for policies that were suddenly brought into the mainstream, such as community response teams for emergencies, limits on police tactics, and even redirecting police funding.

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

The George Floyd Justice In Policing Act would have banned chokeholds and no-knock warrants like the one that led to Louisville police killing Breonna Taylor in her own home. It would also have created a database of officials who have been punished for, among other things, gross errors.

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

Stand outside or sit at the table

Ella Jones didn’t see herself running for office before the protests in Ferguson. Jones, a minister and entrepreneur, felt compelled to protest Brown’s killing 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 shout at the system. However, you do have to sit at the table where the policy is made. So some people might go into politics. Some people may start nonprofits, but we all have to work together to create the change we really need,” Jones said. “You have to sit at the table where policy is made.”

Ferguson prosecutor Wesley Bell vowed to address police misconduct.

Bell told the AP in 2020 that lawmakers should look closely at laws that provide protections from prosecution for police officers that ordinary citizens don’t get.

“We see these types of laws across the country, and it’s something that puts the handcuffs on prosecutors in countless ways when you’re dealing with prosecutors who have committed unlawful use of force or shootings,” Bell said.

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

Bush said she doesn’t know what she will do after she leaves Congress.

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