Summer NY 2020: Black Legal Observers, Black Solidarity

Publication Title

N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change: The Harbinger

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

Leading up to the summer of 2020’s historic mobilizations in the name of protecting Black lives, Black community organizers in New York City frequently lamented the relative absence of a critical stakeholder: the Black legal observer. Like other legal observers, Black legal observers are legal workers and others invited to protests and direct actions to (1) deter illegal police behavior by documenting their interactions with protesters and (2) facilitate the release of arrestees by obtaining their personal information pre-arrest. Unlike other legal observers, Black legal observers are part of a lineage of Black people monitoring state actors and serving a uniquely critical role in the larger Black liberation movement ecosystem. In response to persistent demands, a group of primarily legal workers formed a Black-led legal observer group in 2019 called the New York City Black Legal Observer Collective (“BLOC”). Using BLOC as a backdrop, this essay connects Black legal observation to the protracted struggle for Black self-determination in the United States that continues today. Part I explores different conceptions of Black self-determination since the inception of the Trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the role of Black community members who engaged in various forms of largely self-defense-oriented state observation or monitoring. It brings this history full circle by highlighting contemporary examples of Black-led legal observer collectives that preceded BLOC. Part II focuses on BLOC’s formation, work, and attempts to support Black organizing in New York City during 2019 and 2020. To emphasize the value of formations such as BLOC, Part III highlights how BLOC supported Black-led organizing during the height of organizing for Black lives during the summer of 2020. This essay ends by reflecting on lessons from our time with BLOC that future efforts can learn from to build more sustainable Black legal observers and mass-defense organizations. For those committed to a world where Black people can experience their full humanity, we argue that Black legal observers are an essential element.

Recommended Citation

Julian Hill & Jill Humphries, Summer NY 2020: Black Legal Observers, Black Solidarity, N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change: The Harbinger (2024), https://socialchangenyu.com/harbinger/summer-ny-2020-black-legal-observers-black-solidarity/

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