Here's What Black Lives Matter Wants: 6 Reforms Detailed In Social Justice Movement's Agenda

BY SUSMITA BARAL ON 08/01/16 AT 9:17 AM

More than 60 organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement have released an agenda Monday morning outlining the social justice movement's desired reforms. Titled "A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice,” the agenda lists six demands and offers 40 suggestions on how to meet them.

“In recent years we have taken to the streets, launched massive campaigns, and impacted elections, but our elected leaders have failed to address the legitimate demands of our Movement,” reads a release, reports BuzzFeed. “We can no longer wait.”

For example, the group calls for criminal justice reform and recommends ending militarized police presence in protests. Other reforms include free tuition and retroactive federal student loan forgiveness; rights for trans individuals; and ending the death penalty, mass incarceration and deportations. The organization is also requesting a bill be passed to create a committee to study reparations for those who descend from slaves.

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New Black Lives Matter Policy Platform To Call For Reparations, End Of Mass Incarceration

On Monday, movement groups will release a new policy platform amid criticism the movement is too focused on policing.

posted on Jul. 31, 2016, at 6:00 a.m.
Darren Sands
BuzzFeed News Reporter

WASHINGTON — The Movement for Black Lives conglomerate will put forth a series of policy goals on Monday, framing the proposals as an end to the “war on black people.”

The platform, which is titled “A Vision For Black Lives: Policy Demands For Black Power, Freedom, and Justice,” outlines a series of very liberal proposals. The group will call for reparations; an end to the death penalty, mass incarceration, and deportations; and added rights for trans people under current civil rights protections in a new policy paper to be released Monday. Movement organizers also call for drastic changes to U.S. educational policy, including free tuition and retroactive forgiveness of federal student loans.

In recent weeks, the movement has come under media scrutiny as a series of police deaths have posed questions about what goals activists have beyond police violence. Organizers said the policy platform offered 40 “comprehensive and visionary” policy demands beyond police killings of black people that had become the movement’s calling card.

Organizers describe the policy paper as the result of a year-long process by the United Front of organizations and the Movement for Black Lives Policy Roundtable, that drew on the expertise of local and national organizations and hundreds of others “through research, surveys, convenings and national calls” a spokesperson said.

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