Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Freddie Gray. Their names mark a shift in America’s racial consciousness. Their funerals were broadcast. Their families spoke out on the nightly news. Investigations into their deaths were followed closely by millions of Americans. Invocations of their names and faces inspired protests across the country and brought to life a crop of powerful young organizers.
The names of black men shot and killed by police became synonymous with the slogan “black lives matter.”
But that doesn’t mean black women and girls are unaffected by state violence.