Opening Keynote with This Week in Blackness

In this Netroots Nation 2016 plenary with This Week in Blackness, Netroots Nation attendees heard from local and national organizers in Ferguson and around the country who are working to resist, empower and build.

This Week in Blackness was the convener of this keynote, where they took an unflinching view of the history of systematic oppression of African Americans in the United States and its institutions.

As the speakers showed, the organizing and uprising in Ferguson following the killing of Michael Brown was a pivotal moment in the ongoing movement against America’s system of policing. That very system is responsible for the killings of countless Black lives.

During the session, hosts Elon James White, L. Joy Williams, Sonya Renee Taylor interviewed Jamala Rogers of Organization for Black Struggle; Rika Tyler of Hands Up United; Elle Hearns of Black Lives Matter; Rev. Sekou, Pastor, Author, Theologian and fellow at the Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford; Tef Poe, hip hop artist and co-leader of Hands Up United; CeCe McDonald; Brittany Ferrell and Alexis Templeton of Millennial Activists United.

Here are a few highlights from the session, as told by Netroots Nation attendees: