The Black Lives Matter Movement

October 15, 2017
Grades 8-11 This factual portrayal of the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement should have widespread appeal to youth interested in the topics of police brutality and its opposition. While incorporating numerous studies on police-related deaths against unarmed blacks, the book clarifies that Black Lives Matter is not anti-police, but rather antipolice violence. Readers will learn about new methods police are using to curb offenses, whether from technological advances or building trust in communities that have suffered from it in the past. Parks discusses why Black Lives Matter remains controversial even within some black communities, as well as why it has gained such traction. The book addresses the movement's organizational leadership and goals and why it is so important to communities affected by police brutality. Using recent news stories, anecdotal accounts, social media, and the Justice Department's investigative reports, this book, one of the first to be published on the topic, takes an impressively no-nonsense approach.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)