About Us

Supporting liberation by helping build the legal infrastructure necessary to protect emerging local movements.

After working in Ferguson, Baltimore and Cleveland, lawyers and legal activists have come together to create the Black Movement-Law Project. BMLP provides legal support to local communities throughout the country as they demonstrate against police brutality and systemic racism. We believe in a community centered approach - providing holistic legal and technical service with an understanding that mass defense movement legal experience is often missing from the local equation.

BMLP facilitates a rapid response system supporting activists during mass demonstrations and arrests. We work with local community groups to educate impacted communities in understanding their rights and responding to increased militarized police presence in their communities.

Our work includes legal observation and traditional know your rights trainings, as well as emergency infrastructure such as jail support mechanisms designed to meet the needs of the specific community. Further we have a network of national human and civil rights lawyers that assist local communities in urgent legal needs and long-term impact litigation.

A BMLP Legal Observer observing protestors locking arms and blocking a street in Cleveland

What we do

Key Areas of Expertise, Training, and Support

Legal Observers

Legal Observers are the Constitution’s eyes on the ground. Partnering with other organizations, we help bring civil right and human rights accountability to street protests by training and deploying Legal Observers.

Jail Support

Jail Support is the system that helps activists & organizers who have been imprisoned by local authorities. BMLP helps communities set up the infrastructure necessary to create local Jail Support teams.

Know Your Rights Training

BMLP works with activists and organizations to protect their constitutional rights. We also work with local organizations to create their own materials.

Resources

Tools and Resources for Activists and Organizations

Police Encounter Basics

This video is designed by lawyers to help people understand their rights when interacting with police.

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Dissident Survival Guide

A Field Manual to Encounters with Law Enforement, Corporate Security, and Other HazardsImg

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Online Privacy Tools

Privacytools.io is a one-stop shop for useful online privacy tools and resources.

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If an Agent Knocks

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in-depth Know Your Rights booklet “If an Agent Knocks.”

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Surveillance Self Defense

Online resource for activists and others to protect their digital information made available from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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Know Your Rights Booklet (NLG)

Multi-language “Right to Remain Silent” booklets from the National Lawyers Guild.

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Get in Touch

Connect with us to for updates and to partner with BMLP

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