FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deanna Joseph, Black Lives Matter Grassroots – Justice Families
Phone: 813-562-2045
Websites: justiceforerskinjenkins.org, www.blmgrassroots.org
November 5, 2025
National “Justice Families” and Black Lives Matter Grassroots Join NAACP Lubbock Branch and Lubbock Coalition for Black Democrats to Support Family of #ErskinJenkins in Call for Justice
The family of 20-year-old Black Black college sophomore at Texas Tech, Erskin Jenkins has convened a national delegation calling for justice, beginning with a full investigation into his death. The group, which includes the families of #MikeBrownJr (Ferguson), #GlennFosterJr (former New Orleans Saints player killed in Alabama), and #AndrewJosephIII (14-year-old killed by sheriffs’ action in Tampa), is organizing a week of action that includes community engagement and a press conference. Anchoring organizations are Black Lives Matter Grassroots, NAACP Lubbock Branch, and Lubbock Coalition for Black Democrats.
WHAT: Press Conference for Erskin Jenkins
WHEN: Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
WHERE: TJ Patterson Memorial Plaza (East Plaza of Citizens Tower)
1314 Ave K, Lubbock, TX 79401
WHO: Sharon Jenkins – mother of #ErskinJenkins, Michael Jenkins – uncle of #ErskinJenkins, Michael Brown, Sr. – father of #MichaelBrownJr, Glenn Sr. and Sabring Foster- parents of #GlennFosterJr, Andrew Joseph, Jr. – father of #AndrewJosephIII, Dr. Melina Abdullah – co-founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Phyllis Gant – NAACP Lubbock Branch, Anne Keel – Lubbock Coalition for Black Democrats, Pastor Deshun Avery – First Progressive Baptist Church
Erskin Jenkins majored in psychology at Texas Tech and hails from The Woodlands, Texas. On November 23, 2024, police were called while he was attending a pre-Thanksgiving gathering at a classmate’s apartment. A Lubbock County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Erskin. District Attorney Sunshine Stanek has refused to prosecute the case. The family and supporters are demanding that the case be reopened and fully investigated.
Thursday’s press conference is part of a week of action that also includes campus awareness raising, a call campaign, a petition drop, and an event to feed the unhoused in Erskin’s honor. The participating delegation includes dozens of family members and supporters, many of them Lubbock residents and others from Houston, Dallas, Huntsville (AL), Tampa (FL), Ferguson (MO), and Los Angeles (CA).
Black Lives Matter – California and each of the state’s eight chapters condemn the passage by the state legislature and signing into law by Governor Gavin Newsom of the unconstitutional and undemocratic bill AB 715 and its weak companion legislation, SB 48.
Leimert Park, Los Angeles – Black Lives Matter Grassroots now has fifty-two chapters, including three led by imprisoned folks and one in Stockholm, Sweden. The now-international organization, whose mission is to end state-sanctioned violence, convened this past weekend to celebrate twelve years since the founding of the birth of one of the largest racial justice movements in the history of the world and the very first Black Lives Matter chapter on this same spot, Leimert Park (aka Africa Town), the heart of Black Los Angeles. The organization was sprung into being after the murderer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was acquitted by a legal system that never served Black people.
“BLM Grassroots, Local Organizers, Justice Families, and Student Activists Warn of Alarming Trend of Black Students at Predominantly White Institutions BeingTargeted by White Supremacists and Cops.”
