Donate to bail funds!
→ Bail funds ensure that protesters don’t languish in jail unnecessarily—a burdensome ordeal under any circumstances, and a life-threatening one during a pandemic.
ActBlue will split your donation between 38 community bail funds. The Bail Project provides bail relief in 22 cities, including New York, Chicago, and Houston. The Emergency Relief Fund works within New York City to keep trans people out of jail, where they face acute and heightened risk of violence.
Donating to COVID Bail Out NYC will help post bail for medically vulnerable people held in New York City jails and provide comprehensive post-release support, such as shelter and food, for these individuals.
Be on call for friends and family
→ Some protests have led to violence, so protesters need emergency contacts to reach out to if necessary. You can be one of those people. Be sure you have the protester's full name and birthdate handy and keep a list of resources relevant to your area, including bail funds and organizations volunteering legal resources. Set a check-in time for updates.
If your home is located near a protest site, you can offer respite to protesters. Stock up on water, snacks and basic first-aid supplies and create a shady spot outdoors. This can be done while remaining mindful of the social distancing guidelines in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. You can also put together care packages protesters can take with them. It's hot in many places right now and protests can go on for hours.
Write your local, state, and federal legislators
→ Write your mayor, city council members, county freeholders, state representatives, governor, senators, and representatives. Follow the ACLU’s guidelines for maximum effectiveness.
Support black-owned businesses
→ Black-owned businesses often have trouble securing loans and had issues accessing federal aid programs designed to alleviate the economic burden for small businesses struggling to stay afloat amid stay-at-home orders. A national online survey of 500 African-American and Latinx-owned small businesses conducted by the Global Strategy Group released May 13—after the second round of funding for the program was allocated—found that just 12% received the full assistance they requested, with two-thirds reporting that they did not receive any.
Volunteer
→ Consider if your skills or profession enables you to provide specialized skills to those in need. If you are involved with a restaurant or faith group with access to a large kitchen, you could consider providing food at a larger scale. For inspiration, they can look to Sikhs, who know how to feed crowds in a protest or a pandemic. In a Queens gurdwara—the place of worship for Sikhs—a group of about 30 cooks has served more than 145,000 free meals in just 10 weeks, the New York Times reports.
If you’re a health care professional, you could help as a medic on the streets for protesters who are hurt by rubber bullets or tear gas—or share resources with those who are helping on the ground. If you know how to speak a language other than English, you can translate important documents and news about protests. If you’re a lawyer, consider offering pro-bono services.
You can also become a legal observer and help document police action during protests. The National Lawyers Guild provides training; you can check with your local chapter for more information.
#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives. We are expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front. We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.
