The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea

by Christopher J. Lebron

A condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement in a bid to help us make sense of the emotions, demands, and arguments of present-day activists and public thinkers.
Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful and incendiary campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjustified treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States. The movement is only a few years old, but as Christopher J. Lebron argues in this book, the sentiment behind it is not; the plea and demand that "Black Lives Matter" comes out of a much older and richer tradition arguing for the equal dignity-and not just equal rights-of black people.
The Making of Black Lives Matter presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King Jr., Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement. He also illuminates the crucial difference between the problem signaled by the social media hashtag and how we think that we ought to address the problem. As Lebron states, police body cameras, or even the exhortation for civil rights mean nothing in the absence of equality and dignity. To upset dominant practices of abuse, oppression and disregard, we must reach instead for radical sensibility. Radical sensibility requires that we become cognizant of the history of black thought and activism in order to make sense of the emotions, demands, and argument of present-day activists and public thinkers. Only in this way can we truly embrace and pursue the idea of racial progress in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Race, Philosophy, African American, The United States Of America

216 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2017

Reviews

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not all that interesting. I was curious about the book as the title intrigued me. There are a lot of misconceptions about what "Black Lives Matter" means and while I've read a few other books that deal with the genesis of the movement I thought this would be a good text to read.
 
As the summary says it's an "intellectual history" of how we got here. While Black Lives Matter may be a relatively new concept in terms of how it appears as a hashtag, its movement on social media, the offline work activists do and where it goes from here, author Lebron looks at the historical origins of the movement, looking at history and intellectuals that would eventually give rise to the movement.
 
I suppose what should give it away is that it's an "intellectual history", which is a phrase taken right from the book flap and summaries of the book. Thinkers such as James Baldwin, Frederick Douglss, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others are discussed.
 
I feel a little bad because I'm not sure how to review this. I don't disagree with his framing or arguments but was this text ever boring. It's quite academic while at the same time I wish it wasn't so concise. I'm not sure how long the text could be to fully address this but I found it very difficult to get into. He addresses events out of chronological order (contrasting current events like the death of Trayvon Martin with the lives of historical thinkers) which in itself wasn't bad in my point of view but it felt jarring to move back and forth and sometimes I wasn't quite sure what point he was trying to make.
 
What really throws it off for me is that this is really more about the history of BLM. The founders of Black Lives Matter (Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi) are barely mentioned and I suppose part of it is that I thought thought more about the actual event of how Black Lives Matter came to be (hence the title). I understand that this might not have been the author's aim so maybe my expectations and the actuality were a mismatch.
 
I certainly don't discourage people from reading it but it may or may not match what you think the book is about. I guess I had thought (since I make it a point not to read too many reviews or marketing material so as not to frame a book) that this book would be more like Wesley Lowrey's 'They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement', which is a more contemporary look based on Lowery's on the ground reporting. 
 
Borrowed from the library. It's a relatively slim book so it might be best to borrow first and see if you want it for your own collection.

[Alexander Mesadieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book.

This wasn't about what I was expecting, which is kinda a journalistic approach to the events surrounding the beggining of the black lives matter movement, it was more of a book about the ideas that birthed the ideas of the movement. That being said, although it didn't meet my expectations I thought this book was really inspiring. Its definitely written with black audiences in mind and it has a lot of personal touch to it that made me feel like it's talking directly to me.

This makes you want to go out and make a change and inspires you with a history of a struggle that people are still fighting to this day. The only reason I wouldn't give this five stars is that the author is a college professor and a lot (not all) of the chapters feel like I'm attending a college lecture instead of reading a book that supposed to both informative and entertaining. I'd definitely recommend picking this up at a library if you can it's a pretty short read but packs a lot of punch.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This isn't the book I was expecting it to be. The key to understanding it is NOT the title - but the subtitle. "A Brief History of an Idea" - you basically get a brief overview of the intellectual background out of which the BLM movement has sprung.

So you don't get much on 21st century activism, but you'll get big helping of the ideas and writings of Frederick Douglas, James Baldwin, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Anna Julia Cooper and the like. You get a couple pages here or there on some of the worst shootings of blacks by authorities in modern America, but you get even more of an analysis of the ideas of "Their Eyes Were Watching God" author Zora Hurston.

[Andy Oram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lebron offers short essays on eight leading African-American thinkers, devoting about a dozen pages to each, and focusing on one key attitude each brought to his or her approach to political activism. He has succeeded in spurring me to learn more about each luminary (to read more poetry by Audre Lorde, for instance). But The Making of Black Lives Matter doesn't establish a purpose for itself. The individual biographies are not long enough to give a well-rounded introduction to the leader covered. But nor do the biographies meld into a guide for understanding and taking a more effective role in modern racial justice movements. Lebron has not succeeded in conveying (to me, anyway, a thoughtful white reader) how Frederick Douglass's critique of slavery-era democracy or Anna Julia Cooper's early feminism apply to struggles today, except for the obvious and banal observation that every struggle for freedom can inspire later ones. The most effective part of the book, for me, was the application of James Baldwin's and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s views of love to the forgiveness offered by members of the Emmanual African Methodist Episcopal Church to a mass shooter. Lebron also strikes notes of emotional strength in his afterword, but that too ends in a muddle.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly informative, chronicling the struggle of African Americans to claim basic civil rights from Frederick Douglass and Ida Wells through the Harlem Renaissance to Martin Luther King. The tone is incredibly academic, which is hardly surprising given that the author is a Yale professor of African American history and philosophy, but its not the kind of thing I would hand to somebody who wanted a primer on the history of black oppression or even an easy book to understand the black lives matter movement (which is what I was after). There's virtually no information on the current BLM movement, merely an examination of the historical underpinnings, rendering the book's title rather misleading.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess the way you rate this book depends entirely on what you expect to gain from it - I was anticipating more of a focus on modern-day police brutality and racial inequality, but instead I got a detailed look at the stances of black activists and writers all the way from Douglass to MLK. I still think that this is a book anyone can take a page from, but it wasn't very useful for the type of research I wanted to collect. Also, the writing was a bit too pedantic and I honestly couldn't make it past half of the second chapter.

[Debbie]

This is a well researched and scholarly book with many good points about civil rights and activists through the years and has some information I was unaware of. One example is the multi facets of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Another example is some of the less known civil rights activists, and some of less known victims of police brutality.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, a good thought provoking read.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the blood, sweat and tears of the movement.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent points

Excellent and interesting points made about the struggle of black Americans throughout history. Impeccably written. The tone is quite scholarly. Well done.

[Tricey Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the the historical comparison. #BlackLivesMatter is a movement for its generation but the movement is all too familiar.

[Daniel Bastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The movement Black Lives Matter emerged onto the social justice scene in 2013 following the murder of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman, his killer. Founded by three women—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi—its goal has been to shine a light on the systemic injustice, expressed in violence and targeted discrimination, that haunts men and women of color across America, and to make equal rights and equal dignity a reality, not merely at the level of the law but at the level of everyday life.

As more names and more bodies have piled up behind Trayvon Martin, including Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, John Crawford, Marlene Pinnock, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and countless others, Black Lives Matter has become a call to action that challenges all Americans to reckon with the horrors of police brutality and the modern criminal justice system and the endemic racial woes that have been allowed to fester in our society for far too long.

"Thus, it was the death and failure of our justice system to account for the unnecessary death of a black American that prompted three women to offer these three basic and urgent words to the American people: black lives matter." So writes Christopher Lebron, a philosophy professor at Johns Hopkins University, in the introduction to his excellent 2017 primer on the movement, The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea.

From the start, BLM has been a loosely organized grassroots movement with no formal structure. It has since grown and blossomed and now has an international presence. Accompanied by hashtags and T-shirts sporting the ubiquitous slogan, like-minded activists have formed dozens of local chapters that regularly engage in organized protests and political demonstrations. Its rapid cultural uptake has also inspired a number of sister groups like the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) and Campaign Zero.

Consistent with any movement or ideology that's attained critical mass, BLM has taken on a number of different perspectives, interpretations, and goals. While the aspirations and tactics of those who act under its banner vary and may not always align with the views of its founders, the diversified movement is generally if not universally marked by an acute concern for human rights and its uncompromising demands for racial justice.

Lebron captures the unorthodoxy of the movement thusly: "Eschewing traditional hierarchical leadership models, the movement cannot be identified with any single leader or small group of leaders, despite the role Cullors, Tometi, and Garza played in giving us the social movement hashtag that will likely define our generation. Rather, #BlackLivesMatter represents an ideal that motivates, mobilizes, and informs the actions and programs of many local branches of the movement."

While the decentralized, pro-communal ethos of BLM fosters greater intellectual and political diversity and allows for more fluidity in terms of organizing, its informal nature also leaves its core principles and ambitions open to interpretation. In practice, this suscepts the movement to unfair, distorted, or otherwise wide-of-the-mark characterizations, both by those seeking to sustain the injustice the movement is meant to dismantle as well as by those who operate under its name. Therein lies the impetus behind Lebron's book. As he explains, "The Black Power generation had in the sharp and brave tome penned by Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton, Black Power, a published manifesto and theoretical edifice. In contrast, no such text exists to provide the philosophical moorings of #BlackLivesMatter."

To construct his canonical text, Lebron marshals the generative insights of a roster of heralded black intellectuals like James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Zora Neale Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, and Langston Hughes, charting their unique contributions to black intellectual and creative life. During the course of this process, he touches on everything from black political expression and civic engagement to issues of gender, sexuality, and artistic expression in the black community.

From this richly textured history we see how the legacies of previous black influencers have informed the racial struggle movements of contemporary times. By probing deeper into each of these legacies, Lebron manages to craft an eloquent, authoritative primer that grounds the Black Lives Matter movement alongside an enduring tradition of black resistance against the institutional inequality of American life.

As is to be expected with an intellectual history rooted in philosophical ideals, Lebron's book is dense and not for the faint of heart. While the scholarly tone may be off-putting to some, he packs plenty of insight into its slim, 150-page frame. How much one gets out of this book may ultimately depend on the volume and flavor of ideological baggage with which one goes into it. Those harboring ill will toward the movement will inevitably find ways to nourish that enmity despite its broad informational value, while those already on board with the movement's essential purpose and its means and methods will walk away rejuvenated in the fight for racial progress.

But no matter one's politics, color, or creed, it is incumbent upon all decent people to lend a fair and honest hearing to our generation's defining social justice movement. Lebron's sweeping distillations of generations of black thought and insight are worth the entry price alone, and the ways in which he connects historical activism to modern day struggles should bring renewed clarity to those pursuing a more equal and just world.

I have little doubt that Lebron's careful, compelling book will maintain its relevance beyond the current era, but I would be remiss were I to conclude this review without mentioning how today's political environment shapes the urgency of its message. The ascendance of Trump and the all too familiar themes of white supremacy encoded in his rhetoric have brought the subject of race and racial politics into the national spotlight once more.

While it is true that white supremacists and their co-conspirators were around long before Trump, it's become increasingly clear that the current president has emboldened this contingent like never before. We've observed an alarming uptick in hate crimes since the day he took office, as tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other human rights groups. That is to say, the disreputables to which demagogues like Trump cater are no longer concealed behind societal expectations of decency and civility, but are out in broad daylight, spreading their hate and dehumanizing minority groups in record numbers.

It is in these historical moments that our moral mettle is tested. Those of us with privilege are invited to join hands with the oppressed and push back against the surge of intolerance that threatens black lives and black dignity and all peoples subjected to indecent treatment—because complacency in the face of unchecked hate is a choice.

Excerpts

I've pulled a few of my favorite excerpts from the book and will include them here.

"Such shame seemed to take on a sharper and, if it can be imagined, more urgent tone after the Emancipation Proclamation had ended slavery but had failed to usher in an era of genuine black freedom. While blacks were unshackled from plantations, whites reminded them that their freedom remained dependent on whites' goodwill. But that goodwill was not forthcoming. Instead, the era of black lynching and Jim Crow filled the space formerly occupied by slavery. As Reconstruction crumbled under President Andrew Johnson's hammer blows, institutions relied less on controlling black bodies for labor and started controlling them with segregation and brutal punishment. White supremacy increasingly became an unmediated relationship between common white and black Americans as well as between blacks and institutions that were de facto and often de jure agents of white power interests." (p. 3)

"The notion of black criminality was essential for white supremacists. If blacks were going to roam American streets free, then they were a threat to the lives of good, upstanding whites, and the government could not be counted on to practice exacting justice. Completely unfounded charges of crimes were offered up to turn the gears of racial vengeance within communities and institutions. Once these gears began moving, almost no person or institution could or would prevent the ensuing barbarity...By some estimates, more than 3,400 black Americans were lynched between 1862 and 1968." (p. 4)

"The essence of radical politics is using unsanctioned means to effect change to disrupt the status quo." ( p. 63)

"In present times, a common refrain to the slogan "black lives matter" is the disingenuous retort, "all lives matter." This retort subverts the message of the original slogan by semi-sincerely worrying that to insist black lives matter must somehow mean that black lives matter more than other lives–in other words, those insisting that all lives matter are really concerned about what they perceive to be a fundamental inequality in the status of lives based on race. To these individuals it seems arbitrary that equality would be qualified by skin color. Of course, to most black observers, this is the height of bitter irony since the precise substance of saying "black lives matter" is to instate a nonarbitrary form of equality that eliminates the systematic endangerment of black lives, whether at the hands of the police by gunshot or at the welfare office through resource withholding." (pp. 81-82)

"Were Cooper a present-day activist she would most certainly admire Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the three black women who founded BlackLivesMatter.org. Their position has been that #blacklivesmatter must encompass black lives on both sides of the gender divide and across the spectrum of sexual identification. Cooper was one of the most important early feminist thinkers to argue that black women are worthy humans—their skin color was not a warrant for dehumanizing them; their sex was not a reason for rendering them invisible, mute, and usable." (p. 83)

"For Lorde, blacks who did not support gay rights, especially those of black gays and lesbians, failed to see that the struggle of homosexuals was not of a different kind from their own, but, rather, was simply taking place in a different key." (p. 94)

"James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr. were powerful proponents of the role of love in American race relations. For them, love was the key to democratic redemption." (p. 99)

"The use of nonviolent protest as a cornerstone for national moral progress remains one of King's enduring contributions to American society, and it was grounded in the notion of love." (p. xix)

"The average white American in the middle of the twentieth century did not grasp that "separate but equal" was a moral offense against blacks. Blacks saw deeper into that principle—they rightly perceived that separate meant quite the opposite of equal and that Jim Crow was white supremacy by any means necessary." (pp. 101-102)

"Blacks, then, face a very tangible predicament. Baldwin's call for blacks to love themselves is demanding, but his additional call for blacks to love whites despite the pains and torments of racial oppression can sometimes seem unreasonably demanding. It calls to mind a kind of schizophrenia in which my self-respect requires anger against white power but in which my soul also requires that I be compassionate despite the rage." (p. 112)

"What has gone wrong in the claim that "all lives matter" is not that it is false. Rather, it is beside the point as a matter of both hubris and lack of imagination. Further, it obfuscates the question of identity altogether as well as the different kinds of value placed on various identities." (p. 143)

"The person who wonders why Sandra Bland spoke back to the cop in question cannot see what Sandra saw—an imminent threat to her personhood. Bland's, and everyone else's death, then, is a false enigma, a puzzle easily solved with the key of white privilege." (p. 155)

"Do or do not black lives matter? We still wait for America's response. But the question has been asked, the conversation is being demanded, and there are yet other futures to be written if we so will it." (p. 151)

Note: This review is republished from my official website.

[Federica Raguseo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting but not as tragic as my 1 star might suggest.

Let me start from the beginning. I am quite a passionate reader of history and I decided to educate myself a little bit more on the Black Lives Matter movement - one of the critical society-wide movements of the past century. I picked this book because it had good reviews and was describes as an “accessible description of the political phylosophy” behind the movement itself. So i figured it would be some sort of travel through time via the main phylosophers that influenced the movement.

It was and it wasn’t. Aside from a couple of historical facts, the book is solely a heavy phylosophical description. Some of the chapters are - in my opinion - quite accesible (very much enjoyed chapter 3 on the history of the movement from the perspective of black women), but others are incredibly repetitive and at times confusing. Paradoxically, the author highlights passages from historical figures and makes them far more complicated to understand. At moments I contemplated dropping the book and just reading the people’s original work to understand it better.

I ended up speed reading the last chapters.

All in all, I did learn something, which was my aim all along. Understanding the ideas behind the Black Lives Matter movement was the goal and I feel like I am closer to it.

Should you read the work? I’d say - preview a free sample and decide if the writing style is for you before making any rush purchases like i did. As a scientist, I am used to reading text that goes straight to the point without “fluf”, which this book has tons of. But hey, it’s a writing style and some people really enjoy it so who am I to judge.

[Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book’s historical analysis was insightful, well-researched, and well-organized, but its portrayal of modern race relations seemed generalized and incomplete. I learned a great deal about the beliefs and tactics of influential black Americans like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Audrey Lorde - and thanks to author Christopher Lebron’s commentary, came to understand how their ideas shaped black history from slavery to emancipation, through the Harlem Renaissance to the present day. His frequent return to the theme of “why black lives matter” shaped this story into something a person of any race can understand, can admire. Particularly memorable points included Douglass’ published letter to his former master - and that man’s response - and also Lorde’s exploration of multiple identities and what it means to express them all.

However, I found the last chapter of the book weaker than the others: upon reaching the present decade (the 2010s at the time of publication), the book’s analysis becomes less nuanced and more emotionally driven, making statements about injustices black people suffer today, but not justifying the implication that they are truly a product of systemic racism. A reader who is skeptical or uninformed about these issues may find themselves lost in this chapter. Also, Lebron’s choices of prominent black Americans made for an excellent structure in the chapters about historical events, but in the concluding one - about race relations today - he seemed to limit his chief references to modern black thinkers with whom he disagrees. Lebron is certainly entitled to his opinions and makes some valid points, but I think his arguments would be stronger if he chose to criticize statements by people of any race, not only black ones. This moment in history contains plenty of racially charged statements much more worthy of criticism than those made by John McWhorter and Glenn Loury, two present-day black Americans cited in this chapter.

As a final note, I highly respect Christopher Lebron’s choice to save his most personal, emotional expressions for a separate - but no less eloquent - section of this book, where they can be read as they were written, with the heart as well as the mind.

[Suzanne Ondrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in one day! Lebron covers forerunners of BLM, such as Fredrick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Ida Wells, Anna Julia Cooper...
“For Douglass, the quickness to silence and the desire to avoid confrontation in the name of principles held dear amounted to moral cowardice of a sort that no right-thinking American should be comfortable with. The source of their discomfort should be shame”(Lebron 7). This quote is very relevant today, for our American society has become so overturned where experts are not respected and not heeded. The new culture is that everyone is an expert and everyone’s opinion has equal weight. We have greatly lost our logic and analysis. Furthermore, our society has made it so that students who misbehave cannot be required to apologize to teachers or to classes; I suppose because this would mean “confronting” one’s own wrong and being uncomfortable! And most importantly, many do not want to confront their own racism due to this fear of shame.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, LeBron takes the position that the underlying concept that the lives of black people do matter to American society goes back to the original words in the constitution. After the Civil War when the slaves were emancipated, set free to live on their own, the insecurity of white people over the loss of control of black lives became a source of conflict. This systemic structure continues to this day. By examining this issue as it has evolved over time, through influential black writers and speakers over the era from the Civil War until now, although the society has evolved, there are still many stigmas to be addressed. LeBron examines the work and thoughts of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., and sprinkles his account of the changing history with how the injustices continue to bring focus to the phrase "Black lives matter" today.

[Serendipity · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short read looking at eight Black thinkers and activists from the past - people such as Ida B Wells, Zora Heals Hurston and Martin Luther King - how their ideas connect to the Black Lives Matter movement and how they could be used to improve the future. As a historian I was interested in these connections, and especially the thinkers I had not heard or was only fleetingly familiar with. This is a tough and uncompromising read but, with the exception of accounts of police brutality, it lacked the emotional impact which fictional works on the subject exerted. Not surprisingly since this is an academic work and they tend to be somewhat dispassionate by nature

[Cathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected, but still fascinating. Don't bother if you're looking for a history of the Black Lives Matter movement itself, this isn't that. Instead, it's an exploration of the intellectual foundations upon which the ideas of the movement are founded. I found it very rich and challenging

[Clarreese · Rating 3 out of 5]

not really the making of BLM fr fr, but historicizing the movement that is BLM… I think I’m stuck on love ethic being mentioned as MLK is quoted in lieu of hooks to discuss nonviolence. It threw me for a loop. It’s more fervently and comprehensively taken up in her All About Love book….
I developed a lot more contestations (especially in semantics) that I’ll save for class discussions tbh.

[Hanna Pesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing full of frankness and heart. I especially enjoyed the delving into James Baldwin in conversation with the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Also he doesn't take revolution off the shelf of possibilities which I really appreciate. Also I have ADHD and this is the first nonaudiobook I've finished in a while. Very compelling and engaging.

[Elizabeth Gabhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Lebron traces the history of the concept that Black Lives Matter through the philosophy of Black scholars and influential writers like Wells, Cooper, and King. This book is well-written, thoughtful, and informative.

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful political and idea logical background to the Black Lives Matter movement

[Casey Browne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was curious about the book as the title intrigued me. There are many misconceptions about what "Black Lives Matter" means, and while I've read a few other books that deal with the movement's genesis, I thought this would be an excellent text. I feel a little bad because I'm not sure how to review this. I don't disagree with his framing or arguments but was this text ever dull. It's pretty academic, while at the same time, I wish it wasn't so concise. I'm not sure how long the text could address this fully, but I found it challenging to get into. He manages events out of chronological order (contrasting current events like the death of Trayvon Martin with the lives of historical thinkers), which wasn't wrong in my perspective. Still, it felt jarring to move back and forth sometimes, and I wasn't sure what point he was trying to make.
What really throws it off for me is that this is really more about the history of BLM. The founders of Black Lives Matter (Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi) are barely mentioned. I suppose part of it is that I thought more about how Black Lives Matter came to be (hence the title). I understand that this might not have been the author's aim, so maybe my expectations and the actuality were mismatched.
I certainly don't discourage people from reading it, but it may or may not match what you think the book is about. I guess I had thought (since I make it a point not to read too many reviews or marketing material so as not to frame a book) that this book would be more like Wesley Lowrey's 'They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement', which is a more contemporary look based on Lowery's on the ground reporting. This wasn't about what I was expecting, a journalistic approach to the events surrounding the beginnings of the black lives matter movement. It was more of a book about the ideas that birthed the movement's views. Although it didn't meet my expectations, I thought this book was really inspiring. Its definitely written with black audiences in mind, and it has a lot of personal touch to it that made me feel like it's talking directly to me.