#SayHerName

The #SayHerName movement began in 2014. It has since drawn international attention as both a rallying cry and an organizing principle after police killings of Black women, most recently the killing of Breonna Taylor. Black women, girls, and femmes, some as young as seven and some as old as ninety-three, have been killed by police, yet their names and stories are rarely heard. Among them are Breonna Taylor, Alberta Spruill, Rekia Boyd, Shantel Davis, Shelly Frey, Kayla Moore, Kyam Livingston, Miriam Carey, Michelle Cusseaux, and Tanisha Anderson.

The campaign lifts up their stories in order to build a gender-inclusive framework for understanding, discussing, and fighting police violence. The authors argue that without this knowledge, we cannot fully grasp the circumstances that expose Black bodies to disproportionate police violence, or see how racialized policing and gendered violence intersect with lethal results.

The book offers an analytical framework for understanding why Black women are vulnerable to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence. It also explains how Black feminist storytelling and ritual can mobilize different communities and empower them to advocate for racial justice. Including Black women in conversations about police and gender violence shows that all Black lives matter and that police cannot kill without consequence.

The result is an account of Black feminist practice, community-building, and reckoning.