William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
Abstract
This article examines the transformative impact of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, particularly in the context of the protests that erupted in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. The scale of these protests, drawing between 15 million to 26 million participants in the United States, marks them as the largest movement in U.S. history and signifies a critical shift in social consciousness regarding police brutality and racial injustice. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that incorporates Twitter data and protest activity analysis, this study explores the correlation between online discourse and offline activism, highlighting how BLM catalyzed both social awareness and political pressure necessary for policy reform. Despite notable advancements in local and state-level policy changes in response to the protests, the research indicates that federal policy progress remains largely stagnant, raising questions about the permanence of these changes. The article concludes by affirming that while the 2020 protests sparked a paradigm shift in public perception and legislative action regarding racialized police violence, the movement faces significant challenges that could undermine its long-term goals for structural change.
Repository Citation
Jamillah Bowman Williams, Naomi Mezey, and Lisa Singh, #BlackLivesMatter: From Protest to Policy, 28 Wm. & Mary J. Race, Gender, & Soc. Just. 103 (2021), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol28/iss1/6Included in
Law and Race Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons