Introduction to Special Issue on the Psychology of Black Activism: The Psychology of Black Activism in the 21st Century

Abstract

“One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.”—Ella Baker (Butler, 2011, p. 1) The dawn of a new decade (2020) was a watershed moment in Black activism in the United States. The disproportionate deaths of Black/African Americans from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and police killings during a global health pandemic exposed anti-Black racial oppression. By May 2020, data emerged about the depths of the COVID-19 racial inequalities. For example, the New York Times ran articles describing emerging findings suggesting that Black Americans, compared to other racial and ethnic groups, were entering hospitals with more severe symptoms and dire