Black Lives Matter 2020

The Black Lives Matter movement was a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry across the States and internationally for Black communities experiencing state violence.  But it’s organisers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi went onto to develop a far wider civil rights programme. 

BLM 2020 Bristol was Bristol’s response to the murder of George Floyd. This time the march was led by a small group of students.  Arguably the impact of the pandemic created an unparalleled moment of global witness. Normative distractions were severely curtailed by lockdown thus forcing attention upon events that might otherwise have engaged fewer cohorts for less time. The shocking footage of George Floyd’s murder went viral as did the energy generated by the ensuing BLM protests in the USA. But one might also maintain that five years further forwards Britain and Britain had undergone a normalisation of attitudes to racial justice that were contested decades earlier. This is not to detract however from the immense success of the online campaign organised by the young activists that organised the march. This small group of emergent activists were unconnected to the 2015 marchers.  

 An estimated 10,000 people gathered for the march in and around Bristol’s College Green. After a minute’s silence the marchers followed the designated route through the city centre towards Bristol’s Castle Park approximately a mile away.  It was during this procession that a group of breakaway activists toppled the Colston statute. The toppling of the statute transformed an already remarkable national event into a global moment. The fall of Colston continues to ripple across the country and has added intensity to Britain’s culture war.  The culture war is ongoing. But in the immediate aftermath, the city has dealt with the fallout from the installation and removal of a replacement statute of Black Bristolian Jen Reid. The statute ‘A Surge of Power’ by the artist Mark Quinn was removed on the insistence of Bristol’s first Black mayor Marvin Rees in an attempt to pre-empt a possible backlash from the Far Right. In addition to the statute, four activists were charged with pulling down the statute and, to the chagrin of national government, acquitted. Belying these head line moments were a wave of inclusivity initiatives across the business and culture sector. The impact of these is yet to be known. What is certainly clear is the impact that this march has had upon a new generation of Black and Brown people. BLM 2020 was a consciousness raising moment. 

Activist, photographer Khali Ackford shares how his practice and politics were reshaped by BLM.