#WhatMatters2020
In January of 2020, Black Lives Matter launched a campaign to encourage supporters and allies to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election. They wanted to gain power as a community and help to ensure that candidates would be held accountable for issues that impact Black and under-served communities. #WhatMatters2020 was created to focus on issues like police brutality, economic injustice, access to education, and voting rights.
Black Lives Matter At SchoolÂ
Black Lives Matter At School is a week where educators all over the country organize to enlighten students on racial injustice in schools. The last two years educators wore Black Lives Matter shirts to school, taught lessons based on structural racism, black history, and anti-racists social movements The goal of Black Lives Matter At School is to mandate Black history and ethnic studies in K-12 cirriculum, hire more Black teachers, fund school counselors not cops, and to implement restorative justice instead of zero tolerance discipline.
Coronavirus: We Demand ProtectionÂ
The Black Lives Matter Global Network organization released a statement in March 2020. It detailed their opinion of how the global pandemic was being handled and the different ways they thought the United States could be doing better. They believed a lack of public healthcare system and a lack of structure to pandemic response, causes a lag in the ability of the United States to treat its population. Among their list of demands was; free vaccinations and treatment for all, emergency funding for family and community based childcare for working and cash poor families, and guarantee the immediate and complete restoration of all civil liberties once the national emergency ends.
Peaceful Protests
In June 2020 hundreds of people marched through Pittsburgh peacefully as a response to the death of George Floyd. Along the way, the crowd stopped in front of Allegheny County Jail and laid down on the street. The Pittsburgh Public Safety Twitter tweeted, "Crowd has dispersed. No incidents, no issues. Entirely peaceful.". There were also peaceful protests in Los Angelos, Fort Worth, Seattle, and Philadelphia. Demonstrators held up signs to protest the death of George Floyd. They also laid down or sat in the street to protest police brutality.
"BLM's #WhatMatters2020." Black Lives Matter, 26 Feb. 2020, blacklivesmatter.com/what-matters-2020/.
"Coronavirus: We Demand Protection for Us and Our Most Vulnerable - Full Statement." Black Lives Matter, 17 Mar. 2020, blacklivesmatter.com/coronavirus-full-statement/.
"Black Lives Matter at School Week, Feb. 3-7, 2020." Partners for Dignity & Rights, 12 Feb. 2020, dignityandrights.org/2020/02/black-lives-matter-at-school-week-feb-3-7-2020/.
"Global Actions." Black Lives Matter, 10 Sept. 2019, blacklivesmatter.com/global-actions/.
"Hundreds March through Downtown Pittsburgh in Peaceful Protest." WTAE, WTAE, 5 June 2020, www.wtae.com/article/peaceful-protest-being-held-in-downtown-pittsburgh/32770538#.
