Black Lives Matter.

Links and Resources to Act & Be Informed

We know there are a lot of lists out there. We’ve compiled a list of links and resources to dive deeper into #BlackLivesMatter that also feature local Seattle organizations.

Go here to be on the mailing list for Black Lives Matter updates.

Act

Call or email your local representatives and let them know you support the BLM demands to divest from the police and invest in community needs.

• Dan Strauss, Council Member, District 6 =  (206) 684-8806, Strauss@seattle.gov
• Dow Constantine, King County Executive = 206-263-9600, kcexec@kingcounty.gov
• Jenny Durkan, Mayor of Seattle = 206-684-4000, jenny.durkan@seattle.gov

The King County Equity Now Campaign aims to bring the King County Black Community to true equity across multiple metrics by 2038 – the 175th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation and the 75th anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. Check out their website for their current initiatives.

Donate to and support with your time and/or skill sets:

Black Visions Collective
Black Lives Matter Seattle–King County

Black-led, community-based organizations in Seattle, such as:

• Community Passageways is leading the way in reimagining and actively creating an alternative to today’s criminal legal system with felony diversion and prevention programs – and a vision for zero youth incarceration.
• Creative Justice builds community with youth most impacted by the school-to-prison-(to-deportation) pipeline by creating space for political education, particularly through art.
• WA-Bloc partners with local public schools, community partners, and students and families, to create a collective vision for equitable education that is culturally responsive, trauma-informed and restorative. 
• Wa Na Wari is a center for Black art and culture in Seattle’s historically redlined Central District neighborhood that creates space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection.
• Got Green builds community power by waging visionary campaigns at the intersection of racial, economic, gender and climate justice that incite community participation (via robust base-building), provides a pipeline of leadership development for directly impacted communities, and engages in direct action.
• Seattle | King County Equity Now is an 18-year campaign to bring members of the African Diaspora in King County to equity across key metrics (e.g., homeownership, wealth, birth rates, mortality rates, college admissions, organizational control, etc.) by 2038—the 175th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation and the 75th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
• Nurturing Roots Farm
• Families of Color Seattle

Help protesters with bail and other legal fees:

• The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) provides cash bail for marginalized people charged with crimes who are unable to afford bail and find themselves incarcerated while awaiting routine court appearances in King and Snohomish Counties in Washington State.  
• Support legal representation for protesters arrested in Seattle. This GoFundMe will support Smith Law LLC on costs associated with legal representation. Any remaining funds will be redistributed.

Follow these Seattle-based and national justice leaders:

 Got Green
 Ijeoma Oluo
 Rachel Cargle
 Patrisse Cullors
 Movement for Black Lives
 Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County
 Front and Centered
 Nikkita Oliver
 Africatown Community Land Trust
 One America
 Hip Hop is Green
 Urban Wilderness Project
 Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
 Showing Up for Racial Justice
 Families of Color Seattle
 African American Policy Forum
 The Conscious Kid
 Equal Justice Initiative
 Edwin Lindo
 Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites

Read:

• What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker – Damon Young
• How We Show Up – Mia Birdsong
• So You Want To Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
• How To Be Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
• The Inner Work of Racial Justice – Rhonda V. Magee
• White Fragility – Robin Di’Angelo
• How to Use Your Social Work Degree to Help Decriminalize Mental Illness
• Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community
• 61 mental health and substance use resources for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community
• Black Men Matter – Examining Mental Health Issues Among Black Men – A Guide To Freedom

Watch:

 Keepers of the Dream. Seattle Women Black Panthers
 #1619 Project Interview with Hannah Jones
 I Am Not Your Negro
 13th
 Selma
 An Uncomfortable Truth

Listen:

 Seeing White
 Code Switch
 1619
 Still Processing
 Intersectionality Matters!

Support Black-Owned businesses:

 Intentionalist.com
 Eat Okra app
 PNW musicians

Resources for Business:

 Building an Equitable Economy
 Companies Can Hire, Support, and Hold Onto Black Workers
 How to use Your Corporate Platform
 Systemic Racism
 Mental Health Needs in Communities of Color
 Protestors on the Front Lines