Introduction to Black Lives Matter

The Editors

AT UCLA THE Center for Social Theory & Comparative History, the Bunche Center for African American Studies and the Gary Nash Chair in US History co-sponsored a forum on Black Lives Matter on May 4, 2015. Panelists were asked to address why the movement arose at this moment, what issues drive it and what forms it is taking. We are printing here the edited versions of talks by Cheryl Harris, UCLA School of Law, and Michael Brown, Black Lives Matter Long Beach. In the July/August ATC, we ran those by Justin Hansford, from the School of Law at St. Louis University, and Melina Abdullah, Pan-African Studies Cal-State Los Angeles. We also carried remarks by Robin D.G. Kelley, from the UCLA Department of History, who was a discussant, and Shamell Bell, who was invited to give remarks from the floor about Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. ATC thanks Meleiza Figueroa for her superb transcriptions of the forum talks.

September-October 2015, ATC 178