Why Black Lives Matter

The book traces, in three parts, the roots and history of the Black Lives Matter movement, covering the Abolitionist Movement in the 19th Century; the Civil Rights Movement through the 20th Century, and the Black Lives Matter Movement in the 21st Century. It traces the stories of African Americans' lives through landmark rulings such as Dred Scott v. Sandford and Plessy v. Ferguson, to social status changes through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, lynchings, incarceration and police brutality, and through to the more recent, notorious cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd. It also sets out how this history has given a moral authority to, and legitimized the usage of, the phrase “Black Lives Matter”.