SAY THEIR NAMES

Veteran Black journalists cast a critical eye on American racial injustices in 12 reported essays.

“Movements don’t happen without a buildup,” says social justice activist Ruby Sales in a standout essay in which Charles examines the complex ties between Black churches and the struggle for racial justice. Sales’ comment sums up a theme of this hit-and-miss book: The Black Lives Matter movement—which might seem to have erupted spontaneously—has deep roots and historical antecedents, some dishearteningly similar to recent events. Bunn explores how racism has heightened Black Americans’ vulnerability in the pandemic and how the BLM movement, though associated with men like Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, grew out of the efforts of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi, women who built on the legacy of Ida B. Wells and other female activists. Gaines links modern issues such as mass incarceration and “the disrespect U.S. law enforcement has for Black lives” to earlier forms of racism, such as convict leasing and Jim Crow–era Black Codes. Harriston notes that six years before George Floyd said, “I can’t breathe,” Eric Garner shouted the same words and an officer who failed to intervene was demoted but faced no federal charges. Weaker sections offer shopworn denunciations of Trump and near-hagiography of Kamala Harris and other politicians in flat passages with too much overfamiliar or unedifying material. For many readers, however, this book may be worth it for Charles’ insightful observations on Black churches alone; one is that because Martin Luther King Jr. was a preacher, many people overestimate the role that those churches played in the civil rights struggle. As for current anti-racist efforts, Black churches “haven’t gotten a handle” on BLM. The foreword is provided by Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and president and CEO of the National Urban League.

An uneven yet useful survey of historical and contemporary forces driving the Black Lives Matter movement.