Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016)
Phone Call: Sanford Police Department
crowd chanting: Justice for Trayvon! Justice for Trayvon! (ominous music in background)
Alicia Garza: I personally got obsessed with watching the George Zimmerman trial
I was at a bar and I knew that the verdict was due
cause everything went silent
and that's when we started to check our phones
JUDGE : Please be seated. I understand that we have a verdict?
(Ominous music: dark music intensifying)
In the circuit court of the 18th judicial circuit
in and for Seminole County Florida,
State of Florida vs George Zimmerman
Verdict: we the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty
 
(gasps from crowds) So say we all, jury foreperson
GARZA: when I saw that George Zimmerman had been acquitted,
 
GARZA: I felt like I'd been punched in the gut.
(chatter of crowds in the background, indistinguishable)
MARK LUCKIE: When the George Zimmerman verdict hit, everyone was talking about it.
and so you had this loud rise of voices
it almost became the OJ trial of the new century.
(tense music, crowds chanting "Justice for Trayvon!")
GARZA: Many people were trying to make sense of what happened.
But they felt like the ways that people were trying
 
to make sense of what happened and what we
 
needed to be doing about it were actually destructive
(man yelling: "you won't ask for my goddam opinion!" angry crowd indistinguishable yelling)
 
GARZA: How do we learn how to organize?
How do we learn how to develop a set of demands that
will actually transform conditions in our communities?
I wrote a letter to Black people
on Facebook, saying that there was nothing wrong with us
and we deserved dignity and respect
PATRISSE CULLORS: I came across Alicia's post
hours later and understood there's this thing called a hashtag
and you can make something go viral
and then I put a hashtag in front of it.
saying "Black Lives Matter".
JESSE WILLIAMS: the moment was electric.
Black Lives Matter was a brilliantly framed set of marching orders
slash slogan, slash plea. I can't pretend that I saw
a movement coming out of this particular moment but
young Black people, they are plugged in.
They are moving this conversation, they are driving this conversation.
 
KEEANGA-YAMAHATA TAYLOR: It was really taking off like wildfire
and people began to ask the question
 
is this just young people that are playing out on Twitter
and on Facebook
is this legitimate activism?
or is it just people using their phone
is this a moment or a movement?
ERIC GARNER: I did nothin'! I'm sittin' here the whole  time
Every time you see me you stop. I'm tired.
Whatchyou bothering me for? COP: I'm not trying to lock someone up for breaking up a fight
GARNER: don't touch me! don't touch me!
"I'm standin' here and I didn't do nothin'!"
BLEEP "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!"
(noises of man being forced to the ground)
GARNER: I can't breathe!
I can't breathe! I can't breathe! I can't breathe!
I can't breathe! I can't breathe!
WOMAN FILMING: Racist BLEEP cops doing what they do
(pensive music: soft, sad music)
MAN: The difference between Trayvon Martin and
Eric Garner was that here you saw the injustice
There was video associated with it
so not only did you have this description
you also had a black man who was there
getting wrestled to the ground by police
who was also saying "I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe"
(yelling by crowd) NEWSCASTER: There is growing outrage
after a confrontation by police that was caught on cellphone
(angry crowd yelling, cop on megaphone says, "You are now under arrest!)
The movement is actually happening and it's connecting
 
the dots and now instead of the scattered buckshot
of black people talking
about things that have happened
to them and it's just word of mouth, now
it is a hardcore human movement
that is crafty enough to use social media
to lift up its voice to have a serious impact
and change the direction of
the national conversation
(Crowd yelling: "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!)
There are people now
with phones watching the police
this is very very powerful
we want America to see what is happening
and at a certain point, we are going to blow.
We are going to blow the door down.
(ominous music: dark music intensifying)
MAN: I was getting ready for work
and then I heard the first gun shot
I just knew that someone had got shot on the street.
and it was by police
It was such a surreal moment
I was kind of just like tweeting really fast
I remember I had a lot of typos
and then people started seeing it
(crowd yelling: "That's fucked up!")
(Crowd: oh my god! oh my god!)
MICHEAL BROWN'S MOTHER: why, why did they kill my son?
It was only a few weeks after Eric Garner
when it happened
and so there was something about August 9th
in Ferguson that really became a catalyst for
the eruption of a national movement
(sirens)
BOOGIE D: People wanted not just answers
they wanted justice!
CROWD: What do you want? JUSTICE  What do you want? JUSTICE
Things are raw. You are dealing with a young black male,
unarmed
shot multiple times and at that point
the story was that he did run, he had his hands up
WOMAN: So the officer, I pray for you
for you shall reap what you have sown
JOHNETTA ELZIE: The police murdered Mike Brown
in the middle of the street
and his body was laying down there
for four hours
people just wanted justice for this dead
black boy, but then the police were bringin' dogs out
and guns out on women
and kids
(sigh) yeah, that's what took the turn
CROWD: Hands up! Don't Shoot!
(Dramatic drums)
BRITTANY PACKNETT: I remember seeing elderly people
out there and children out there.
we were being at home.
right? being in our own streets.
and then for folks in Ferguson, literally their own streets
but we were treated like
(sigh) we were treated like we were in a war
(sound of loud bangs, angry crowds) COP: if you are in the middle of the street
you are unlawfully assembled. Disperse immediately!
(more loud bangs) DARNELL MOORE: Everything erupted in Ferguson
This is rage, it's profound sadness
and it's all on Twitter.
TAYLOR: social media extended the reach of the activists
It both allowed people in far away localities
to have a minute by minute view
of what was continuing to happen in Ferguson
and it also meant that activists could
communicate immediately about where demonstrations were
where protests were. It just accelerated the rate
of activism surrounding this case.
Jonathan Pulphus: We were out in the streets responding to the needs
as they were presented
and in that moment,
young people were saying we're going to stand up
and we're not going home.
ELZIE: I was just there.
I wasn't trying to be the news or be a reporter.
I just tweeted everything that I knew
to be true
and the next thing you know,
the police are shooting tear gas
and it was the first time I thought that I was going to die.
(BLEEP loud explosions, people running yelling, "Go! Go!")
(lots of coughing, explosions, indistinguishable yelling)
NEWSCASTER: Ferguson Missouri is under a state of emergency
Male voice: "I signed an order declaring a state of emergency..."
NEWSCASTER: The eyes of the world are watching...
WILLIAMS: those visuals impacted my desire to
go there. Seeing police pull out, Where did you get those tanks?
and full body armor and bazookas and
all of this tear gas?
NELLY: It happened via social media
and you're kind of looking at things
and you're like, What just happened?
St Louis is home for me, and I used to live
in that apartment complex where it had happened
so I had to come back for that situation
(angry crowd yelling )
TAYLOR: Ferguson becomes  magnet
for activists around the country. The activists
The activists who formed Black Lives Matter
organize a freedom ride
to Ferguson where they bring 500 activists from
around the country to demonstrate solidarity
(lots of yelling, more explosions)
DERAY MCKEESON: I was on my couch and it was one o'clock in the morning and I saw
the events unfolding on Twitter
and I said, "I just want to go"
I want to at least bear witness
so I got in my car and drove to St. Louis
and the second I got into St Louis they had the curfew
and it was the first night that I got tear-gassed
and it was in that moment that I became a protestor
DAVIS: People from the Arab Spring
were tweeting to the protestors in Ferguson how to deal with the tear gas
They were coaching them from Arab Spring to Ferguson
making that connection organically
that I though, "Oh snap! This is different! "
They are in solidarity in uprising.
WESLEY LOWERY: It became clear, undeniable that this
was more than a few angry people in the street
but that without every single person that was
out there tweeting and Facebooking and posting
pictures and standing in front of those officers in Ferguson
there would be no movement.
MARSHALL ALLEN: Eric Garner was in NY, Trayvon Martin was in FL
People think, these things don't happen in the Midwest.
But now, this is in a sense the epicenter of
a national movement
MAN: I bring to you, one of the most influential
civil rights leaders of our history
Reverend Al Sharpton
(clapping)
AL SHARPTON: (unintelligible)  is time to deal with policing
We are not the haters, we're the healers
But then let me say this, what does God require
That Michael Brown does not want to be remembered for a riot
sittin' around having ghetto pity parties
rather than organizing and strategizing
you've lost where your coming from
MAN: you know, there's this idea that this was a space created by these young people
they've been in the streets, they've been tear-gassed
they had been leading the chants and crafting the signs
and they didn't want older civil rights activists taking what they had created
and I think that that exposed what was one of the first kind of fault lines
what has been a deep ideological split
between older black America and the other black America
LUCKIE: It was almost like a bat signal had gone off
and civil rights had been flashed in the sky and all of a sudden they rushed
in like caped crusaders to save the day
but this was a very modern movement. People weren't expecting
that civil rights leaders of a bygone era would stand side by side with these young people
who had just found a voice
MAN: "We haven't seen you marchin' at all Jesse"
We ain't seein' you!
Luckie: I remember Jesse Jackson showing up and he got yelled down by some of the younger
activists
This was about defiance.
That is the movement.
Woman: These protestors took control of the narrative
and took it out of the hands of the old guard civil rights establishment
and this was really the first time where people were saying
that, no, we are not going to defer to you
we have been successful thus far
so the people of Ferguson are not going away
until Darren WIlson, the police officer who shot Mike Brown
is indicted
That is the demand of the movement, that
indictment of Darren Wilson
DERAY: We're now talking about what does it mean to have justice?
I can remember how different that felt
and it was so tense because we didn't know when that decision was coming
I think not telling us when the decision is going to come is a power play
by the state. We are ready though, we've been ready
and we're protesting.
NEWSCASTER: We are about to hear the grand jury decision
in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by
Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson
MAN: The duty of the grand jury  is to separate fact from fiction.  They discussed and debated the evidence
among themselves before arriving at their collective decision
After their exhaustive review of the evidence
the grand jury deliberated over two days making their final decision
They determined that no probable cause
exists to file any charge against police officer Wilson
and returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments
TAYLOR: we see just the enormity of the problem
that the movement is up against
because for every incidence of police brutality
that has been exposed,
we still have the fact
that Darren Wilson, who killed Mike Brown,
was not indicted
every time that people have thought that the movement would disappear
it reemerges on the streets
it erupted in an entirely new way
in the city of Baltimore in April of 2015
KWAME ROSE : We've heard about so many victims of police brutality before Trayvon Martin
died, before Mike Brown died
We know that the system protects police officers
but I don't think, it didn't give everyone permission, it gave  everyone purpose
(RAP MUSIC) 🎵  Well articulated retaliation  🎵
🎵 this war is only begun 🎵
🎵 we are being systematically murdered🎵
🎵 and it's being televised 🎵
🎵 it's burning with anger and hungers for justice 🎵
🎵 we've had enough 🎵
🎵 we will fight back! 🎵
(SINGING) 🎵 There was a fire started 🎵
🎵 pray for my dear departed 🎵
🎵 Why do they love their hatred? 🎵
🎵 why am I surprised every time I see the chaos and destruction 🎵
🎵 I see the eruption... 🎵 (Newscaster:  Breaking news in NYC whereThe grand jury would not indict the police officer
who used a chokehold on Eric Garner
(Singing) 🎵...the corruption, damnation forced the eruption 🎵
🎵 of the nation, why does this still feel like a plantation 🎵
🎵 on lock down, while my brothers keep getting shot down? 🎵
🎵 that's why we need a change 🎵
NEWSCASTER: A remarkable scene just unfolded moments ago
Cavs star LeBron James took to the court for warmups
wearing a t-shirt that reads "I can't breathe"
the latest in a series of pro athletes who promote those words to become a rallying cry
after nationwide protests against police brutality
Newscaster: St Louis Rams players came out with the "Hands Up
Don't Shoot Pose", paying tribute to Michael Brown
JOHN LEGEND:  It's an artist's duty to reflect the  times in which we live
because the struggle for justice is right now
we wanna tell you that we are with you, we see you,  we love you, and march on
god bless you (clapping from audience)
(singing) 🎵 there's a fight now, for my life now...🎵
(rap song):  🎵 once again in the zone 🎵
🎵 all my life ever needed to be deep and strong 🎵
(shots fired) (singing) 🎵 just trying to go harder...🎵
NEWSCASTER: going now tonight, a routine traffic stop that turned
deadly to a father, apparently unarmed,
shot because he ran from this police officer
(singing) 🎵...should not be mad at you, if I hit the jail 🎵
🎵 I was just passing though, there's no smudge on my rep or my attitude 🎵
(rap song) 🎵 we're here for solutions, not asking us 🎵
🎵 so don't stop to ask why we messing up..🎵
(singing): 🎵 No justice in the enemy 🎵
🎵 there's a fight now, for my life now 🎵
Newscaster: 25 year old Freddy Gray died just yesterday
just one week after he was rushed to the hospital
for spinal injuries by 4 Baltimore police officers
Gray's family attorney said 80%  of the man's spinal cord had been severed near his neck
Baltimore Police are promising accountability
(singing) 🎵 I'm angry, I'm hungry for justice...🎵
(Crowds yelling "No Justice No peace!")
(singing) 🎵 So hungry for justice, sisters so angry 🎵
(singing) 🎵 I'm hungry for justice.....🎵
🎵 It's just us.....🎵
🎵 the hatred is killing my soul 🎵
DEVIN ALLEN : It's not like we was in the civil rights movement
but you know, when I took that image, I didn't think that it was going to end up on the cover of TIME.
These are not just random acts of riots,
this is anger, this is the uprising
you know? That's what it is. They're not thugs
they're warriors, they're soldiers, they're not thugs
these are brothers, these are sisters, these are fathers
these are sons, these are human beings. They're not thugs, they're angry.
(helicopter whirring) NEWSCASTER:  Authorities are saying that they want all the protestors
off the streets now, to prevent a repeat of last night's mayhem
where rioters destroyed 15 buildings, set fire to a hundred and fifty cars, looted dozens of
businesses and so far there have been over 200 arrests and 20 police officers
have in fact been injured. We go right to the ground tonight in Baltimore
with the very latest. Our own Geraldo Rivera is there. Geraldo?
(Protestors yelling at Geraldo) GERALDO: Hey Sean, it's a very excited crowd where I am standing right now.
I'm with the state senate majority leader...Hey, c'mon get out of the way man!
Get out of the way!
Protestor: Don't touch me!
Geraldo: then stop blocking my camera!
Protestor: I want you and Fox news to get out of Baltimore, to get out of my city!
cause you're not here to report about the boarded up homes and the homeless people
under MLK, you're not reporting about the poverty levels up and down North Avenue
I didn't even know who he was. But the first thing I did after that was
text my father. I was like, look, I was yelling at someone from the media
heh heh, so if you see it, don't be mad.
When they're reporting about riots, when they're reporting about looting
they aren't reporting about the living conditions or the condition that Penn North was in
before the CVS went up into flames
Shannon Wallace: everyone can see what's happening:
Our villages are broken, so you  know, this Freddy Gray story  kind of escalated
from people waking up into consciousness to people being fed up, you know
baltimore's been fed up
 
TAYLOR: I think Baltimore speaks to  deeper problem about policing in American cities
In fact, 3 of the 6 police officers that picked up Freddy Gray were African American themselves
If people could say that Ferguson could happen because you had a corrupt white government
governing over, um,  a mostly black population
Baltimore destroys all of that
and I think we have to take into consideration that inequality gives rise to police violence
in black  communities. So how do you actually go about fighting for justice?
CROWDS : FTP! Fuck the Police!
FTP! Fuck the Police!
Justice! When do we want it? NOW!
BILL O'REILLY: Black Lives Matter. I think they're a hate group
They hate police officers. You would think that if you have an organized group in America
Saying we want dead cops, that all decent people  would reject that group. You would think, correct?
(montage of newscasters all talking over one another)
CULLORS: No one prepares you for backlash. Fox news and Bill O'Reilly in particular have come out
after us, but where did that narrative come from? that's not coming from our mouths
that's not the shared story we have
MAN IN Center: You were able to find one clip of some people, that was not a reflection
of BLM, Has anyone in the leadership ever said that? Have anyone from the leadership ever said that?
NEWSCASTER: Let's talk about the backlash against Black Lives Matter in some corners of the press
Is it warranted, or is a dangerous connection being made between the movement and a misunderstood message?
Every struggle that I've ever been a part of, there are always outliers. There are always occasional
folk who often co-opt or twist the message
MAN IN CENTER: so do you think the folks at Fox news are trying paint with too broad a brush? What do you think happened there?
this week. It seems like Fox had a narrative. MAN ON END: Of course they were!
NEWSCASTER: The unfortunate thing is that the Black Lives Matter movement, which can only be described as nonsense
is creating a lot of this type of thing around the country. And it's going to backfire, quite honestly.
CROWD: Hands up! Don't Shoot! (repeats)
WILLIAMS: They will do everything they can to make sure that they are on top of the show
hitting you, with hard headlines. But we have to anticipate it
and we have to stop being surprised because this is real
Today the Harris County Sheriff's Department mourns the loss of one of our own
Deputy Darren Goforth was senselessly struck down while pumping gas at a Chevron station in
Northwest Harris County yesterday evening
We've heard Black Lives Matter, well cops lives matter too. So why don't we drop the qualifier and just say lives matter?
And take that to the bank. Newscaster:  People are chanting
what do we want? dead cops? when do want it? now. I'm not the one saying this there
are people in the Black Lives Matter movement that are saying that we want to go out and...
MODERATOR: Deray?
DERAY:  Are you suggesting that a chant from Minnesota led to the death of an officer? OTHER MAN : You heard me talk to Ben and suggest
that...DERAY: Accusing an entire group of people for a random act of violence. That without any facts
he's making very, very strong statements and that is a reason why people protest.
I think what's really important is getting the narrative right and the narrative coming
from the movement has always been that we are not a movement about harming police,
we are a movement about holding police accountable
Crowd: Black Lives Matter
GARZA: What do we do when people act outside of the expectations of who we want to be together?
What does it mean for us to be a group?
I think in the pursuit of visibility,  we can forget what we are fighting for
The glorious and glamorous part  is people in the streets and protesting and all of that
what's not glamorous is figuring out, hey, how do we be together over the long term?
How do we learn how to organize?
LOWERY: One of the major difficulties for a truly leaderless movement is that this is very much
a mosaic of activism. It's bigger, much bigger than any given quote unquote leader
or any given quote unquote organization
and this is the real problem, right?
WILLIAMS:  This is a movement, this is ongoing, and we're late, frankly
No matter what we do, we're late. So what's next?  Get it together, get informed. Become a team.
TAYLOR: We all talk about how social media transformed this movement
but now we've seen young protestors without organized leadership, so
there is a question about where the movement goes from here
The Black Lives Matter movement in my generation, we have to go bold
We have to make sure that it doesn't stop, like how other movements did
NEWSCASTER: 2 years ago, hundreds of protestors gathered in lower Manhattan to Occupy Wall Street
But the Occupy movement had it's fair share of problems. From protestors resistance to clear leadership,
the movement seems to have faded away
GARZA: We come from a long legacy of protest and struggle, but now we have to
galvanize thousands and thousands of people to fight for reforms in their communities
and in their government. So that's why we started Black Lives Matter as a network
of 39 chapters around the world.
(Kendrick Lamar singing) 🎵 We gonna be alright...🎵
Garza: and so the movement is growing
(Kendrick Lamar singing) 🎵 did you hear me? Do you feel me? we gonna be alright....🎵
NEWSCASTER: Now Black Lives Matter is a national organization
Supporters disrupt rallies for Democrats and Republicans alike
The tactic has had an impact. The day after activists interrupted Bernie Sanders,
He posted a racial justice platform on his website
DERAY: Right now I'm talking about what does it mean to be a movement full of people
who are leading and doing the work in different ways, and that there is no one way
to organize, there is no one way to be in this work
Man: Nice to meet you. DERAY: my pleasure
So I asked Etta and Brittany and some of the people if they wanted to partner
and we created Campaign Zero
Mapping police violence was a statement about "here are the facts"
It's a powerful tool, we continue to use it to inform our work
When I think about running for mayor, I think about being in a place to change
people's lives today and tomorrow.
It's about real, concrete things that can happen at the policy level
to structurally end police violence
DAVIS: And that's what's different about this movement. We are seeing leaders come forward.
And this is because they took social media and made it work for them
Black Twitter is the matrix. Black Twitter popped it off and because of Twitter,
We know who Patrice is, we know who Alicia is, we know who Netta is. This generation is not
gonna let them be nameless. And they're doing that.
NEWSCASTER: So for a movement that's not formally funded,
that doesn't have a big headquarters in Washington DC
or registered lobbyists, that's a lot of momentum
So where does Black Lives Matter go from here?
Joining us tonight is Alicia Garza. Thank you for joining us.
LUCKIE: You have people who had come from regular backgrounds who were teachers, students,
Now became these big personalities. The were on the covers of magazines,
they were being interviewed by the New York Times
and in doing so they were leading a whole generation of
of black people and they were representing them as well
OBAMA: We've got some young people here who are making history as we speak. People like
Brittany who served on our police task force in the wake of Ferguson
and has led many of the protests with people like Deray McKesson.
who has done some outstanding work to mobilize and involve more around these issues
Brittany: It was a real privilege to have the opportunity to be invited to the White House
and have a conversation where you are speaking direct truth to power
It is about our children, our community, it is about stay woke.
Now that you have become exposed, now that you have become aware
of issues of police violence in our community, I need you to stay aware
I need you to behave like you're aware. I need you to stay woke
get woke and stay woke
Deray: We can actually change the world if we implement changes on the inside.
But also, people need to press from the outside.  Pressing from the outside forces things that
otherwise won't happen. We need both.
NEWSCASTER: 30 African American football players at the University of Missouri say
they are on strike. It is the latest in a series of protests that deal with the handling of race relations
race relations on campus. OTHER NEWSCASTER: Missouri graduate student Jonathan Butler
was so outraged he went on a hunger strike last week.
OTHER NEWSCASTER: How do you feel? JONATHAN: Empowered, ready
PRESIDENT of MO: I am resigning as president of the university of Missouri today
and I take full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred
BELL: People were shocked. And I think that was a seminal moment because it was so
dramatic and there's been a culture shift when it comes to athletes speaking out on social issues
WILLIAMS: There is no such thing as the arc of history bending towards justice
People do that.
Is it ok to break the law or not? because cops are breaking the law left and right
I mean, you don't own us anymore. We all have the same inalienable equal rights or we don't.
MOSBY: An independent investigation that Mr. Gray's death was a homicide
Has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges
That's why I'm here, that's why the uprising began
that's why we're still rising today
NEWSCASTER: today the Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit in federal district court against
the city of Ferguson Missouri, alleging a pattern and practice of law enforcement misconduct
that violates the 1st, the 4th and the 14th amendments of the Constitution
and federal civil rights law.
DAVIS: I'm really proud of this generation.  It's a revolution in a way
They have used this new tool and I think Black Lives Matter will define this shift in America.
I think we will look at Black Lives Matter like we looked at the Civil Rights Movement
TAYLOR: The Black Lives Matter movement is the most important development in black life in the last
40 years and the most important aspect of it is that it's ordinary people fighting this fight
It is something that we have been responsible for getting out onto the streets
and I think that the movement is here to stay.
Crowd: Black Lives Matter!
Black Lives Matter!
Black Lives Matter!
Captions contributed by Tina McKim and Ashanti Monts-Treviska
 
