Baltimore is rising up to protest the police killing of Freddie Gray, the long history of over policing and police brutality, and the severe under-resourcing of Black communities in Baltimore. The city is under occupation, with a heavy presence by the national guard and a curfew imposed by the mayor. The national media attention has been focused on the destruction of property, rather than the violence of police killing black people with little accountability. As one Baltimore organizer put it, the millions of tax dollars paid in settlements to families over the years could be better spent on jobs, housings, and supports to Black communities, if police were not killing and abusing residents.
This page offers resources, updates, and a twitter feed (on the right side of this page) to help you stay updated on what is happening in Baltimore and ways to support the uprisings. We also encourage you to check out similar efforts from our partners and members of Funders for Justice:
ABFE circulated From Ferguson to Baltimore: We Must Continue to Support, including a number of information resources, organizations, and opportunities to support the Baltimore Uprisings.
Resource Generation also circulated a number of resources, and encouraged support through their fundraising effort to support Black-led organizing for Black liberation, Young People Investing in a Future Free of Racism.
Please check back on this page regularly for updates and additional resources.
ORGANIZATIONS
Still-grieving mothers ask Andrew Cuomo to assign special prosecutors ‘to all cases of police killings moving forward’
Bell, who broke down in tears while retelling the story, is one of 18 family members of people killed by cops who penned a letter to Gov. Cuomo. The letter dated Feb. 24 and obtained by the Daily News urges him to “enact an executive order to assign a special prosecutor to all cases of police killings moving forward.”
Thinking About the Safety of Black Lives Beyond Policing
We need to fund more teachers and social workers, not police officers, in our schools. We need doctors, not cops, to deal with drug addiction and mental illness. We need full employment not the criminalization of poverty. We need organized and powerful communities not federal tank giveaways. We need to fund stronger, healthier neighborhoods, not bigger police departments.
Making Black Lives Matter
Nat Chioke Williams, Executive Director, Hill-Snowdon Foundation: The Black Lives Matter movement has allowed the country to approach having honest, clear and urgent dialogue on structural racism by punching holes in the cone of silence that typically suffocates meaningful dialogue on racism with a sea of deeply cynical memes like political correctness, reverse racism, and color blindness.
Questions Linger for LGBT Community After Police Kill Jessie Hernandez
The challenges facing LGBT youth of color in Denver have been magnified since police fatally shot 17-year-old Jessica "Jessie" Hernandez in late January. Hernandez's death was another stark reminder of the dangers faced by queer youth of color in the city.
EPIP Webinar – Police Accountability and Racial Justice: Sustaining a Movement
Feb 18th: In this webinar, we will be joined by representatives of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a New York City based coalition, to learn about their local work and how it fits into a larger national and historical context. We'll discuss how to maintain momentum and make this issue more than just a campaign point, while exploring the critical role funders play.
The Police Are Killing One Group at a Staggering Rate, and Nobody Is Talking About It
The end of 2014 was a bloody time for Native Americans. Even as protesters rallied against the police killings of unarmed black people like Michael Brown and Eric Garner in December, Rapid City police fired five bullets into Allen Locke, a 30-year-old Lakota man living in South Dakota.
FUNDERS TAKING ACTION
Key Insights from #BaltimoreUprisings
by Austin Thompson, director of the Youth Engagement Fund at the Democracy Alliance
The Fund for Rebuilding Baltimore, at the Baltimore Community Foundation
In response to recent painful events in our city, the Baltimore Community Foundation has established The Fund for Rebuilding Baltimore. We will work closely with our partners in the community to determine how the dollars contributed to The Fund for Rebuilding Baltimore can best be deployed to repair the physical and emotional damage that has been done and strengthen our community for the future.
Hill-Snowdon Foundation Statement on the Killing of Freddie Gray
The Hill-Snowdon Foundation wants to extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the family of Freddie Gray for his senseless and tragic death. Freddie Gray’s death joins the almost weekly incidents of suspicious and disturbing police involved deaths of Black males and females over the last eight months. These incidents are a clarion call for all those who believe in justice to look deeply at the underlying institutional practices and attitudes that inform the history of the disproportionate use of excessive and deadly force by police officers in the Black community.
Read the full statement on the Hill-Snowdon Foundation homepage.
Joint Affinity Groups Statement on the Baltimore Uprising
The events in Baltimore Maryland unfolded right as many grantmakers in the field were engaging in the 2015 conference season. The killing of people of color, predominantly Black people, by police is a recurring concern. This is a not a new problem, just one that is more well known to us all given the presence of cell phone cameras and social media. As in Ferguson, New York, South Carolina and many other regions, funders in Baltimore are now faced with developing rapid response strategies in addition to their ongoing work.
Statement by Open Society Institute – Baltimore in Response to the Killing of Freddie Gray
The Board and staff of Open Society Institute-Baltimore are deeply affected by the events in Baltimore over the last several days. We join with millions of individuals in Baltimore and beyond in extending our deepest condolences to the family of Freddie Gray, and we, too, are angry that the life of another young black male was cut short while in the custody of those who are sworn to protect and serve. While we are saddened by the recent destruction, we choose not to lose sight of the issues that precipitated these events or the solutions that are needed to bring about healing, peace and justice in Baltimore.
MUST-READ ARTICLES
Stop the War on Baltimore by Dante Barry, May 6, 2015, The Nation
Non-Violence as Compliance by Ta-Nehisi Coates, April 27, 2015, The Atlantic.
Undue Force, An Expose on Police Violence in Baltimore by Mark Puente, Sept. 28, 2014, The Baltimore Sun.
Some Baltimore police officers face repeated misconduct lawsuits by Mark Puente, Oct. 4, 2014, The Baltimore Sun.
In Defense of Looting by Willie Osterweil, Aug. 21, 2014, The New Inquiry.
In Support of Baltimore; Or, Smashing Police Cars is Logical Political Strategy April 26, 2015, Radical Faggot.
The New York Times Went to Baltimore, and Only Found the Police Worth Talking To by Neil deMause, April 28, 2015, Alternet.
How they ignore Black America: Freddie Gray, Baltimore & the pernicious influence of respectability politics by Jay Driskell, April 28, 2015, Salon.
“The law is the enemy”: What RFK can remind America about police brutality by Heather Digby Parton, April 29, 2015, Salon.
What Young People on the Ground Think of the Uprising in Baltimore by Darnell L. Moore, April 28, 2015, Mic.
Gang members: We did not make truce to harm cops by Deborah Weiner, April 28, 2015, wbaltv.com.
From Ferguson to Baltimore the Movement Continues presented by ABFE
A Statement from Baltimore United for Change tweeted by Mervyn Marcano
Powerful Content to Share About Baltimore presented by MoveOn.org
Activist and Radio Host Farajii Muhammad is a Strong Voice for his City and the Protesters Call for Justice presented by CNN.com
