Emmanuel Cannady
“Daddy changed the world.” – Gianna Floyd
In those words, George Floyd’s six-year-old daughter succinctly captured the global significance of her father’s tragic murder. Together with the outrage of Breonna Taylor and Amaud Arbery’s murders, the killing of Floyd triggered protests around the world demanding greater police accountability and the eradication of structural racism and white supremacy for good. Protesters marched in the streets, lock-step and in unison, and again proclaimed “Black Lives Matter!”
Throughout the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement captured public consciousness on a level not seen since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Currently, it is common to see people hanging “Black Lives Matter” signs in their home windows, churches changing their marquees to match the movement, and businesses crafting anti-racist statements. Though momentum favors the current movement, all movements are difficult to sustain. Therefore, in this essay, I will discuss the Black Lives Matter Movement’s sustainability strategies. Specifically, I will address how the movement sustains interracial unity, the utility of persistent media visibility, and how protest tactics help build political power.
