Activist DeRay Mckesson Makes a ‘Case for Hope’ in New Book


Activist DeRay Mckesson has emerged as a prominent voice in the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2014, he left his Minneapolis apartment and traveled to Ferguson, Missouri, to join protests following the fatal police shooting of teenager Michael Brown.

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A few months later, he left his job as an administrator at Minneapolis Public Schools to devote himself to organizing and activism.

Since then, Mckesson has participated in multiple protests, amassed more than a million Twitter followers, helped launch a database for recording police-involved violence and even ran for mayor of Baltimore, his hometown (he came in sixth with under 3 percent of the vote).

His new book “On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope” is part memoir, part activism guide, detailing turbulent, tear gas-filled protests as well as meetings with President Barack Obama.

The author’s call for accountability isn’t limited to police-involved shootings or brutality, but also how data related to those incidents is collected. In his book, Mckesson writes: “if a department doesn’t report it, then there simply is no data at all.” He also notes that Florida reported “zero instances of police violence across the entire state between 2004 and 2014, which a simple Google search demonstrates is false.”

McKesson, who also co-hosts the political podcast “Pod Save the People,” joins us in discussion.

Follow Evan Garcia on Twitter: @EvanRGarcia


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