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Norman Miller Daily News Staff @Norman_MillerMW

FRAMINGHAM Although often portrayed as a terrorist or anarchist organization by its opponents, Black Lives Matter exists to give a group that has been ignored and treated like second-class citizens a voice, a member of the group said on Saturday.

Speaking at a Black History Month program at the Greater Framingham Community Church, Martin Henson of Black Lives Matter-Boston, the groups existence is necessary.

We took this month where we want to make sure there is a black voice heard, said Henson, speaking to about 30 attendees. Black Lives Matter exists because its something we need to survive. Im not going to give the world as it is to my daughter. Im not going to do it.

Saturdays event featured artwork from Framingham elementary and middle school students that celebrated Black History Month, as well as Black Lives Matter.

It also featured a community reading of an abridged version of Frederick Douglass 1852 speech, The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro, led by Fran Smith of Mass. Humanities, a human rights group based in Northampton.

Black Lives Matter started in 2012 after George Zimmerman was cleared of murdering Trayvon Martin in Florida, Henson said. Since then, Black Lives Matter has changed.

It started as a hashtag, then turned into an organization and then turned into a movement, said Henson. Black Lives Matter is inclusionary. There is no standard of what you have to look like, the way you have to act or what you have to think.

Black Lives Matter is an abolitionist group it wants to abolish the current prison system and the current way of policing that all too often targets blacks and minorities, Henson said. He called prison one step away from slavery.

When asked if there werent prisons, what would happen, Henson said there has to be a better way for society to treat people.

I know for sure what we do now is inhumane, he said. I know Im going to focus on stopping what is inhumane.

Rev. Anthony Lloyd, the pastor for the Greater Framingham Community Church, spoke about KKK flyers that were dropped off at several Framingham homes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

He said, when it occurred, he was contacted by reporters for comment. But, he said, he is not the right person to talk to.

Im not here to say black folks are upset by the KKK, said Lloyd. You dont need to call me about that. You have to call the white folks who live in Framingham and see if thats the type of community they want to live in. Part of the solution is to see how they feel about this.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. Follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

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Black Lives Matter gives a voice, speaker says in Framingham - Wicked Local Framingham

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Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders has acceded to demands from the local chapter of Black Lives Matter and agreed that the force will not participate in this years gay pride parade.

In his explanation, Saunders referred to divisions within the LGBTQ organizers of the multi-million dollar event.

We understand the LGBTQ communities are divided, he said in a statement. To enable those differences to be addressed, I have decided the Toronto Police Service will not participate, this year, in the Pride parade.

Those divisions center on objections from Torontos Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists who want to minimize the presence of their sworn police enemies.

Last years parade made more news than usual after BLM protested the presence of police and temporarily halted the event. It only resumed after the executive director of Pride Toronto, Matthieu Chantelois, agreed to BLM demands that included a future ban on police floats.

Chantelois later claimed that he only signed the document to stop the protest.

Then in January at their annual meeting, Pride Toronto members voted in favor of the BLM edict, with no one saying for certain whether that included police officers as well as floats.

The absence of police in the parade still leaves BLM feeling unsatisfied.

They are trying to flip the narrative and make it seem as if they are choosing to pull out of Pride when in fact they were uninvited, said spokesperson Syrus Marcus Ware.

Ware said the police chief failed to mention such issues as anti-blackness and policing and carding a standard practice of patrolling dangerous sections of town that BLM insists is aimed a non-whites.

On Friday, Pride Toronto suggested the police forces decision not to participate in the parade was a positive development.

Pride Toronto is committed to continuing the important dialogue that has taken place with our membership and the broader community. We are listening. We will listen. What we have seen from the Toronto Police Service is that they are also listening, the organization said in a statement.

A former Conservative member of the Ontario legislature, Phil Gillies, told the Toronto Sun Saturday that the decision by police chief was very unfortunate. I can understand the police being upset after the decision that was taken at the Pride annual meeting. However, I think its unfortunate. We need our police to be involved with the community.

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Excerpt from:
Toronto Police Accede To Black Lives Matter Gay Parade Demands - Daily Caller

Norman Miller Daily News Staff @Norman_MillerMW

FRAMINGHAM Although often portrayed as a terrorist or anarchist organization by its opponents, Black Lives Matter exists to give a group that has been ignored and treated like second-class citizens a voice, a member of the group said on Saturday.

Speaking at a Black History Month program at the Greater Framingham Community Church, Martin Henson of Black Lives Matter-Boston, the groups existence is necessary.

We took this month where we want to make sure there is a black voice heard, said Henson, speaking to about 30 attendees. Black Lives Matter exists because its something we need to survive. Im not going to give the world as it is to my daughter. Im not going to do it.

Saturdays event featured artwork from Framingham elementary and middle school students that celebrated Black History Month, as well as Black Lives Matter.

It also featured a community reading of an abridged version of Frederick Douglass 1852 speech, The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro, led by Fran Smith of Mass. Humanities, a human rights group based in Northampton.

Black Lives Matter started in 2012 after George Zimmerman was cleared of murdering Trayvon Martin in Florida, Henson said. Since then, Black Lives Matter has changed.

It started as a hashtag, then turned into an organization and then turned into a movement, said Henson. Black Lives Matter is inclusionary. There is no standard of what you have to look like, the way you have to act or what you have to think.

Black Lives Matter is an abolitionist group it wants to abolish the current prison system and the current way of policing that all too often targets blacks and minorities, Henson said. He called prison one step away from slavery.

When asked if there werent prisons, what would happen, Henson said there has to be a better way for society to treat people.

I know for sure what we do now is inhumane, he said. I know Im going to focus on stopping what is inhumane.

Rev. Anthony Lloyd, the pastor for the Greater Framingham Community Church, spoke about KKK flyers that were dropped off at several Framingham homes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

He said, when it occurred, he was contacted by reporters for comment. But, he said, he is not the right person to talk to.

Im not here to say black folks are upset by the KKK, said Lloyd. You dont need to call me about that. You have to call the white folks who live in Framingham and see if thats the type of community they want to live in. Part of the solution is to see how they feel about this.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. Follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

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Black Lives Matter gives a voice, speaker says in Framingham - MetroWest Daily News

Kevonna Buchanan, 15, of Gates gathers with others at the Liberty Pole in July before a demonstration march supporting "Black Lives Matter."(Photo: CARLOS ORTIZ/@cfortiz_dandc/File photo)Buy Photo

The Rochester City School District has proclaimed next Friday, Black Lives Matter at School: A Day of Understanding and Affirmation.

Some criticize the phrase, but I think it makes sense.

Such slogans resonate with you when the Supreme Court of your country once said that people of your race are beings of an inferior order so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

When the number of years that your race spent in slavery in America (246) still far outnumbers the years since the Emancipation Proclamation(152).

When your mother had to flee terrorists (the white supremacist kind) who shot at blacks who dared to try to sit near whites in a Mississippi movie theater.

Black lives mattering is a relatively new concept in American history. So people ought to understand that the real message is that black lives matter as much as white lives do, which is just too long for a rallying cry.

But thats just my opinion.

Students will get to debate, discuss and explore this and othermatters relating to race and the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday. The day isn't connectedto thenational Black Lives Matter movement. Rather it was proposed by parents, teachers and citizens.Potential lessons includeBlack Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter, race and the criminal justice system, and What happened in Ferguson and why?

Teachers mightshow their students "13th," a documentary by Ava DuVernay that explores today's prison labor system and how it links to slavery.Or encouragethem to read Michelle Alexanders "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."For little kids, there are a variety of options, including ananti-racism lesson centered around the Dr. Seuss book The Sneetches.

Why is the district doing this? The official answer is that it wanted to create a day of education, dialogue and action that will actively engage a significant number of educational communities throughout Monroe County in activities that support understanding and affirmation of black lives.

Theres also the fact that many of its students look like Treyvon Martin, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, the young men whose deaths sparked #blacklivesmatter. These studentsare living history and should be encouraged to think about current struggles for racial equality and justice.They should be taught that their lives matter as much as anyone elses and given the tools to continue the centuries-long struggle for a countrythat reflects this.

Erica Bryant is the Pay it Forward columnist. Contact her at ebryant@gannett.com

Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/2kvasPg

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Rochester school district to celebrate Why Black Lives Matter at School - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Despite concerns expressed by student leaders at the University of Southern Maine, Black Lives Matter protesters have no plans to demonstrate against Thursdays appearance on campus by a controversial Maine lawmaker.

Leah Kravette, one of several people arrested last July during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, said no students involved with that movement are connected to any planned protest of a talk by Rep. Lawrence Lockman.

Kravette also said she was saddened to see student leaders associate her movement with any lawbreaking or violence. She said although there were arrests last summer, there was no violence and said any characterizations to the contrary are unfair.

Lockman, a Republican from Amherst, will lead a talk titled Alien Invasion: Fixing the Immigrant Crisis, from 7-8 p.m. Thursday at USMs Wishcamper Center in Portland. He was invited to speak by a student group called Young Americans for Freedom. A Michigan chapter of that organization has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Lockman is one of the more outspoken members of the Maine Legislature. He has a long history of controversial comments dating back to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. More recently, he has been outspoken about immigration and has criticized Catholic Charities Maine, the organization that settles refugees here.

On Friday, USM President Glenn Cummings met with students who objected to Lockmans appearance. Cummings previously had rejected a request by another group to cancel the talk, saying that a college campus is the best place for freedom of speech.

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Black Lives Matter members have no plans to protest USM talk - Press Herald