By Briana Stamps and Apiphany Bailey
Trinity Times Correspondents
The words “Black Lives Matter” are seen all over the campus of Trinity Washington University, and the recognized movement has significant meaning for many of the student body, who are predominately Black and Latino.
The activism behind the words has also provided Trinity students with role models, like activist DeRay McKesson, who demonstrates the meaning behind the BLM movement and the drive to boost its momentum.
“Movements kind of come and go,” said Father Stephen Thorne, Trinity’s coordinator of Black Catholic Ministry, Culture and Scholarship, “but we have to keep the conversations going.”
McKesson has been a driving force in keeping the Black Lives Matter conversation going in a movement that is forcing America to examine its racist past and present to secure true racial equality in its future.
Born in Baltimore in 1985, McKesson has spent a lifetime as an organizer of some sort.
As a teenager he was the chairman of “Youth As Resources” for Baltimore’s youth-led grant-making organization, then was the student government president while attending Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
After graduating in 2007, McKesson began his career in education and worked in New York, Minnesota, and Maryland schools.
He became an early supporter of Black Lives Matter and in 2014 he quit his job with the Minneapolis Public Schools while participating in protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police shooting death of Michael Brown.
The Black Lives Matter movement began the year before with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Black teen Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, and it became nationally recognized during the protests in Ferguson.
The movement grew into a global network and advocates for various policy changes related to Black liberation, police brutality and to address systemic racism, calling attention to the value of Black lives.
McKesson has been a visible presence in the movement, frequently participating in protests following police-related deaths, and other violence, involving Black Americans.
He co-founded Campaign Zero – a policy plan for police reform – in 2015, launched the podcast “Pod Save the People” in 2017, has met with U.S. presidents and appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to discuss race and education.
He reflected on his activism with Trinity Times and his role in BLM, underscoring that knowledge is key in fighting for change and a better future.
“No substitute for knowing the content,” McKesson said. “Finding the passion is easy, but knowing what or who you are fighting for is the most important part.”
The cause must become second nature to the activists before they can be effective, he said.
“Educate yourself and learn the ways of the world around you,” McKesson said. “By the time you are ready to take action, you will know everything you need to know to stand by your campaign. This is because you studied, analyzed and researched to be competent and fluent and passionate about the cause you are fighting for.”
There are many students at Trinity who share the same passion for equality and the improvement of Black lives, and they are looking to people like McKesson and Black Lives Matter to guide them.
Father Thorne strongly believes students should educate themselves about the cause and emphasizes the words “Black Lives Matter” are important, because they are a “reminder of how we are treated and how we treat people.”
The changes he sees in the history of Trinity – from being an elite all women’s college to opening the doors to underprivileged students and now being a predominantly Black and Latino university – is a great example of positive change in the Black community he’d like to see more broadly.
“I want to see more change in the education system and healthcare system,” Father Thorne said, “and overall justice in this country.”
As a movement, Black Lives Matter is an ever-evolving force, but it also faces heavy criticism, internal struggle, and never-ending battles.
Because of the political nature of the movement, some Black students have mixed emotions about it.
“I hope to learn more about the movement then apply what I have learned to what I see in the real world, then decide if it is a movement I stand by,” Trinity student Toni Hubert told Trinity Times. “It is something I deem political, and politics isn’t my thing.”
The BLM movement has come far since it’s humble beginnings as a hashtag, but McKesson believes it can go further. In an article he wrote entitled “The Change We Wanted to Believe In,” McKesson said “Progress – if we are to have it at all – will be conditioned on the diversity of our strategies and tactics, on our ability to use each opportunity to lay the groundwork for later, successive wins, and in our understanding that hope is both belief and action.”