We’d like to hear from people who are demonstrating against racism in the UK. Share your stories
Despite a ban on mass public gatherings because of the coronavirus lockdown, demonstrations took place across the UK over the weekend following the death of George Floyd. In Bristol, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down by protesters.
We would like to hear from people who are thinking about attending demonstrations.
Continue reading...Thousands of protesters gathered outside the US embassy in London on Sunday to show solidarity with demonstrators in America, where protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis continued into a second weekend. Crowds in the UK capital shouted slogans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for action to end racism and prejudice.
Continue reading...
George Floyd’s body has arrived in Houston ahead of a memorial service and burial in the coming days.
Floyd, who was killed by police in Minnesota last week, spent most of his life in Houston where he had been a high-school football star. There will be a public viewing and memorial service in Houston on Monday before he is buried on Tuesday next to his mother, Larcenia Floyd. A memorial service for family was held on Saturday near his birthplace in North Carolina.
The Episcopal bishop of Washington DC, Mariann Budde, has renewed her criticism of Donald Trump in a sermon on Sunday. Budde said she was “outraged” last week when law enforcement used pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear a crowd of peaceful protesters from near the White House so the president could attend a photo opportunity at a local church.
Related: Bishop 'outraged' over Trump's church photo op during George Floyd protests
Continue reading...Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol have pulled down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston, whose company transported more than 100,000 slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689. Demonstrators attached a rope to the Grade II-listed statue, pulled it down and rolled it into the city's harbour. It follows the toppling of several Confederate statues during Black Lives Matter protests in the US
Guardian contributor Anselm Ebulue photographed some of the protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally in London and heard their reasons for attending following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis
Continue reading...The UK health secretary has said there is a risk of an increase in Covid-19 cases following the Black Lives Matter protests this weekend, while denying Britain is a racist country. Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Matt Hancock said: ‘I support very strongly the argument that is being made by those who are protesting … but the virus itself doesn’t discriminate and gathering in large groups is temporarily against the rules precisely because it increases the risk of the spread of this virus’
Continue reading...Large crowds from coast to coast demonstrate against police killing of George Floyd
The top editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer has resigned following an uproar over a headline bemoaning property damage incurred during the ongoing protests decrying police brutality and racial injustice, the newspaper has announced.
Guardian US reporter Nina Lakhani reports from Harlem:
Hundreds of people prayed and protested in Harlem this afternoon, in a peaceful and hopeful mobilization characterized by dignity, anger, resistance, and determination.
“Get off our necks,” and “racism is America’s original sin,” were among the hard-hitting truths chanted by protesters as they marched uptown from the National Black Theatre, a historical and cultural landmark situated on the corner of 5th Avenue and West 125th Street. Pastors and other faith leaders gave rousing speeches outside the theatre and other iconic spots including the Schomburg Centre for research in black culture – an internationally renowned archive for information on people of African descent which is located on the corner of Lennox Avenue and West 135th Street.
Continue reading...Thousands gather in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane to protest against Indigenous deaths in custody
The Sydney “Stop All Black Deaths in Custody” rally has been declared an authorised public assembly after a late decision by the court of appeal as thousands of protesters rallied in cities and towns across Australia to march against Indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of unarmed US man George Floyd.
The decision came minutes before the rally’s scheduled start at 3pm outside Town Hall on Saturday.
Continue reading...Guardian US reporter Kenya Evelyn explains why the unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd could be a defining moment for racial politics in America, and how the coronavirus pandemic set the backdrop for the protests
Addressing a panel from his My Brother's Keeper movement in the wake of George Floyd's death, former US president Barack Obama had a message of hope for young people of colour, saying they had witnessed too much violence. 'I want you to know you matter, your lives matter, your dreams matter,' he said. Obama also discussed the idea that both voting and protest can 'bring about real change' and that the current scary times can be an opportunity.
Thousands of protesters have marched through central London in an overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that culminated in passionate crowds gathering at the heart of Westminster.
The demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were under 30, chanted: 'No justice, no peace, no racist police', 'I can’t breathe' and 'the UK is not innocent', in a lockdown-defying demonstration that was largely organised through word of mouth and social media away from established anti-racism groups.
Continue reading...
The Guardian’s Ankita Rao, reporting from New York, on the mayor’s controversial late-night statements:
Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the podium on Saturday night to tell protestors across the city that they were “heard, loud and clear”.
I’m in Brooklyn to talk about tonight’s protests. https://t.co/oBVXGh7JWo
US prosecutors have filed federal charges against three people in New York, accusing them of using “molotov cocktails” on New York police vehicles during the Friday protests:
BREAKING: Three people charged with federal crimes in connection with Molotov cocktail attacks on the NYPD during #GeorgeFloyd protests in NYC Friday night. pic.twitter.com/dyaDJByMit
Continue reading...A video taken by Sandra Bland in 2015 shows how a white state trooper confronted the 28-year-old black woman in a traffic stop after he says she failed to signal. Texas authorities have denied withholding the footage shot by Bland, who was found hanged in a jail cell near Houston in 2015. The video had not been publicly seen until it was aired this month by a Dallas TV station. Both lawmakers and Bland’s family say they had never seen the clip
Continue reading...The author’s young adult novel became a publishing sensation and an acclaimed film. Here, she answers questions from readers and famous fans on activism, social media and coping with rejection
In book publishing, it seems, they still do fairytales. Really not very long ago, Angie Thomas was a secretary to a bishop at a megachurch in Jackson, Mississippi. At nights – and during quiet periods in the day, she furtively admits – she worked on a young adult novel inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. She had previously written a children’s book, but hadn’t had any interest from agents. “Yeah, I had more than 150 rejections for that one,” says Thomas matter-of-factly.Thomas’s break came when she cold-contacted a literary agent who was doing a Twitter Q&A. The story speeds up now: the novel became The Hate U Give (THUG), a YA sensation about a 16-year-old girl called Starr who witnesses her friend Khalil being shot by the police and turns to activism. THUG, published in early 2017, went straight into the bestseller chart in the US and stayed there for a year. It was a hit here too, and named overall winner of the 2018 Waterstones children’s book prize. It has now sold more than 2m copies globally. Last year, a film adaptation was released, which has been a critical and commercial success.
“Oh, it’s definitely surreal,” says the 31-year-old Thomas, on the phone from Jackson. “I still can’t believe it. It does feel like a dream I’m going to wake up from.” Her agent now is one of the 150-plus who turned down her first book. “So I hold that over his head,” she says, and giggles.
Continue reading...