Teaching Ferguson

Having just finished teaching a seminar inspired by #TheFergusonSyllabus movement and momentum, I am thankful to Darnell L. Moore for pulling together these powerful readings, focusing on activists and scholars reacting to Mike Brown’s death in Ferguson last summer. Moore’s A Ferguson Syllabus: Reading a Movement is filled with wonderfully rich resources.

In his own words:

Names like #MikeBrown, #RekiaBoyd and #EricGarner and movement themes like #HandsUpDontShoot, #SayHerName and #ICantBreathe signify the same idea: Black lives matter and are worth fighting for, regardless of the reason black people end up opposite a police officer’s gun…

Here are some essential readings from several astute activists, journalists and writers that have inspired, angered and challenged readers everywhere this past year. While this is in no way an exhaustive list, the following offers insider and outsider views of Ferguson, pushing all of us to consider the radical spirit and collective beauty illuminated in mass mobilized protests.