On August 9, 2014, I was at the United Nations to attend the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD). I was part of a delegation of black organizers and activists reporting on the conditions of the black population in the United States. The delegation was from the
US human rights network. I cried most of the day, suffering under the burden of the injustices and murders against black people.
There was a chill in the air and not a dry eye remained in the UN CERD room as Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton testified about her son’s murder. I remember Jordan Davis’ father Ron Davis testifying about his son’s murder and the silence that fell as he burst into tears. Both sons were murdered by state-sanctioned violence – by the state encouraging police or even volunteer neighborhood watchmen to take black lives with impunity. I can still hear the statements of black feminist organizations like
Blueprint for black women and activists from Chicago speaking about police brutality and murders of Black women and men. I spoke and testified about housing crises and violence against LGBTQI+ people. For us, all of these stories were connected and shared – they were all about Black lives not being valued and Black people needing to strengthen their people power to stop this.
While at UN CERD, an African diplomat asked me, “What is happening in Ferguson?” That was the first time I had heard of Ferguson, Missouri. I quickly researched everything I could find about Ferguson and what was happening there. As a father, I immediately felt the loss of another child, Mike. The murder of Mike Brown Jr. was as intimate, close and hurtful as that of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Aiyanna Jones and the many others who were taken by state-sanctioned violence before August 9.
Our work continues as we grapple with the rapidly growing rise and threat of fascism, a complex electoral landscape, an ever-worsening climate crisis, and the ongoing killing of Black people by police, such as the killing of Sonya Massey.
All of this was overwhelming. It was clear that we had lost too much as a people. In our time of greatest need, the state responded by declaring war on its people with tanks, tear gas and military occupation. We were outraged. We knew we had to do something. We didn’t know what to do, but we knew we had to be there with those brave freedom fighters in Ferguson. A few comrades and I left the UN-CERD meeting and headed straight for Ferguson.
When we arrived in Ferguson, we learned more about Mike through the memories his people had of him. He was beloved in the community, and more than that, he represented so many of us, and we all had so much in common with him—Mike’s life was not abstract; it was real, tangible, and familiar. Mike Brown Jr. looked like many in our families and neighborhoods. Mike Brown Jr. looked like my nephew and other young men in my own life. It is a psychological terror to have faces and bodies that so closely resemble your own hunted down and killed. We still mourn and lament Mike, and his memory continues to fuel our struggle for power and liberation.
As revolutionaries, our role is not just to mourn and lament, but to honor our people—present, past, and those who will come after us—by acting to create the society we deserve. For months, Mike Brown Jr. was honored through sustained action and rebellion in the streets of Ferguson and actions around the world. The mention of his name prompted millions to speak the names of Black people killed by police, and that reverberation sparked a new conversation about racial violence. Every day, every hour, there was resistance to police killings and state-sanctioned violence and the assertion that Black people deserved to live without fear and threat of police terror. The days were filled with marches, rallies, escalations, and community time, and the nights were long and filled with strategy meetings, event preparations, and far less rest than our bodies needed. But even when those protests ended, the work wasn’t over. Mike Brown Jr. and the uprisings in Ferguson awakened something in us and inspired a new era of black liberation that has now lasted for a decade. Our lives, my life, have been changed forever.
We at Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL) are fighting for a fundamentally different world. A world where he and all of us are safe and protected and have the best conditions to thrive and determine our own destiny.
Since the Ferguson uprising, M4BL has been committed to advancing slavery abolition, anti-capitalism, and Black queer feminism. We organize and promote our vision in local communities and nationally. Our strategies range from promoting political and electoral change to building our own institutions and alternatives to oppressive systems. We are proud of the organizing of our member organizations in Ferguson and St. Louis who have been critical to resistance and power-building, such as:
Action St. Louis and the Organization for the struggle of the blacks.
In the 10 years we have been building the power of social movements in Black communities, we are proud of our interventions to create political and legislative change through the
Vision for Black Lives, Breathe ActAnd People’s Reaction Act all aimed at withdrawing from the carceral state and instead investing in alternatives that support and advance Black lives and communities. We are excited to report on the dozens of campaigns that have achieved and advanced local successes, from removing cops from schools, creating housing, changing education policy, creating safety cells and alternatives to policing, advancing reproductive justice, and engaging communities in environmental and climate change preparedness.
Our work continues as we navigate the rapidly growing rise and threat of fascism, a complex electoral landscape, an ever-worsening climate crisis, and the ongoing killing of Black people by police, such as the killing of Sonya Massey. We recognize that we must build more power to enable us to create the world we need and deserve. Now and forever, we honor Mike Brown Jr. in our organizing work and all those who were taken from us. As the nation reflects today on how Ferguson changed the world, I ask you to consider what we must do in the next 10 years to ensure we move closer to a world where uprisings like the one that shook the foundations of our nation are not necessary. We are still feeling the impact of what happened 10 years ago in every aspect of society: cultural, political, social, and economic. And we are less than 80 days away from a presidential election in which the freedom to participate in our democracy is literally on the ballot.
We know that much of what is promised in Project 2025 is a direct response to the transformative changes that the uprising brought in Ferguson, so I ask you to keep that in mind as you think about the changes you want to see in the next four years. I ask that you not overlook the communities in Ferguson who never asked for their city to be put in the spotlight but acted quickly to demand change and accountability from their local police and the entire policing system. Please remember Mike’s family, his loved ones, and the organizers on the ground who are doing liberation work in ways that can only be described as revolutionary and rooted in a deep love for their people. Today, reflect on your personal responsibility to change our world in the next 10 years.
We started forming M4BL during the uprising because we knew there were things we could do together that we couldn’t do alone. And we still believe that. Help us build people’s power so that liberation becomes more than just a dream of freedom; let’s make it a reality.
