Karmelo, who was just 17 years-old at the time of the incident, was never the aggressor. A child of impeccable character, a multi-sport athlete, an A student, and the captain of his football team, Karmelo should have been protected when he was being bullied. Instead, he was forced to defend himself, then criminalized, arrested, prosecuted, convicted, immediately remanded into the custody of the Collin County Sheriff, and sentenced to 35 years in prison. The state plans to cage him, stomp out his infinite potential, and deprive the world of his light until he is 54 years-old.

With his wife of 28 years and partner in all things, Deanna Joseph, he founded the Florida chapter of Black Lives Matter Grassroots and serves as the founding Rapid Response Coordinator and on-the-ground lead for the worldwide organization.

We also know that the San Diego killers did not act in isolation, but in the context of a city, county, and country that has long criminalized people of color through so-called gang documentation and enhancements, white nativism, ICE raids, police violence, and racism and xenophobia writ large.

Charleston, SC – Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in full solidarity with the Charleston Reparations Taskforce and the Gullah Geechee community in demanding the immediate transfer of over 7,000 acres of plantation land, including Middleton Place, Boone Hall, and Magnolia Plantation, to permanent Gullah Geechee stewardship.

Miscarriage of Justice!
Charges Dropped Against Cops Who Killed #ChristopherDeAndreMitchell
Conservative District Attorney Nathan Hochman Pushes Through Abandonment of Active Case Against Killer Cops from Notorious Torrance Police Department

We are grateful for the courage, vision, sacrifice, and power of Black Lives Matter Grassroots Twin Cities lead Chauntyll Allen, courageous comrade Nekima Levy Armstrong, and other principled organizers for their righteous resistance to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal invasion and fascist repression in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Rather than submitting to an unparalleled evil that murders mothers in their own vehicles, explodes chemical weapons upon infants, kidnaps and imprisons preschoolers, brutalizes children, separates families, and terrorizes communities, grassroots organizers in the Twin Cities are putting their own bodies, freedom and livelihood on the line to secure community.

On New Year’s Eve, as the world thirsted for celebration, Black father, son, neighbor, and community member, #KeithPorter stepped outside his front door to celebrate. Like many around the nation, he fired his gun in the air to celebrate the coming of 2026. An ICE agent who lived in the same complex moved as if Keith was no more than a target in a game. He went inside his own unit, put on his tactical gear, grabbed his ICE-issued firearm, stepped back outside, and shot this Black man dead in front of his own home.

Black Lives Matter Grassroots vehemently condemns the United States’ military strikes on Venezuela, the unlawful kidnapping of President Nicholás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and the threats against Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and the Venezuelan people. These actions have brought death and injury to civilians, desecrated the land and seas, and violated the nation’s sovereignty. Not only are these actions illegal according to international law and the United States Constitution, we know these to be war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Black Lives Matter Grassroots is unaffiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation which is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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

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.

The United States government cornered her, framed her, caged her, made her a fugitive, then named her a terrorist…their insidious lies woven from the same thread used to hunt Mama Harriet, to sever Nat Turner’s head and place on a stake, to rape our grandmothers, and to lynch our grandfathers.

The occupation of Washington, DC by militarized troops at the behest of a racist, fascist Trump regime is the full-on declaration of war on Black people in America. While some “Black faces in high places” are complicit, becoming proxies for the colonizer, it is ultimately the power of the people that will defeat the oppressor. In DC, this is the long-held work of the #FreeDC movement and Black Washingtonians who have always resisted, never submitting to their own oppression.

On Saturday, July 26, 2025, the “Handala” Freedom Flotilla, with an international delegation of 19 humanitarians and 2 journalists, was illegally and unjustly kidnapped by Israel. Among the humanitarians was courageous labor leader, beloved comrade in Black organizing, and founder of the Amazon Labor Union, Chris Smalls.

Leimert Park, Los Angeles – Black Lives Matter Grassroots now has fifty-one 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.

Juneteenth is OUR BLACK JUBILEE

June 19, 1865 marks the day that our enslaved Ancestors in Texas received word that our generations of struggle to free ourselves toppled legal chattel slavery (at least in the current form). On this date our grandmothers’ grandmothers and our grandfathers’ grandfathers turned to each other in love and power to celebrate our beauty, our humanity, and divinity…despite an entire infrastructure and economy that tried to turn us into property.

On February 10th, Black Lives Matter Grassroots released our statement vehemently opposing Trump’s planned ICE raids. With the fascist raids now in full swing, let us be clear: abolishing ICE must be part of the Black liberation agenda. The blatant attacks on migrant communities are absolutely a Black issue. We assert this position on both moral and strategic grounds.

May is not just another month on the calendar—it is a sacred time of reckoning, remembrance, and relentless resistance. This May, we carry the weight of history on our shoulders as we honor the lives stolen by white supremacist violence, celebrate the revolutionary legacy of our ancestors, and reaffirm our commitment to the fight for Black liberation.

“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.”

Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands unwaveringly with the Palestinian people, and students around the world who dare to put their bodies and futures on the line to demand a U.S. arms embargo against Israel and a #FreePalestine.