Documentary Photographer and Writer Robert Gerhardt is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Mic Check: 7 Years Documenting the Black Lives Matter Movement in NYC’. To see Robert’s body of work, click on any image.

Protestors Waving the Upside-Down American Flag, Atlantic
Avenue, near the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY May 31, 2020

Trayvon Martin Rest in Power, Grand Central Station, New York City, February 4, 2019

On November 24th, 2014 a Grand Jury absolved a white police officer of the killing of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Two weeks later, a second Grand Jury in New York City cleared white police officers accused of killing an unarmed black man named Eric Garner.

We Will Not Be Silent, Union Square, New York City,
November 25, 2014

Protest for Botham Jean, Broadway, Manhattan, September 28, 2018

Following these decisions, the local protests that erupted in Ferguson and on Staten Island spread to cities and towns across the country. People took to the streets to protest against both the Grand Jury decisions, as well as police brutality and racism in general. The largest of these protests garnered huge amounts of media coverage. But there were also many smaller protests that received little to no media coverage. Following the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter as a starting point, I began to track and document both the large and small protests in New York City.

Philando Castile Killed by Police, Penn Station, New York City, February 12, 2018

Over time, the size of the crowds at these protests dwindled and the media coverage of them all but disappeared, even as the list of names of those African Americans killed by the police across the country continued to grow. But with the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake at the hands of police in 2020, the protests were reenergized. Once again mass crowds took to the street even during a global pandemic, to call for justice and to change the system that allows these deaths to occur.

Rally, City Hall Steps, New York City, December 19, 2014

More Rage, Times Square, New York City, April 29, 2015

But the protesters’ work is not yet done. While the officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck was quickly tried and convicted, the rate of police officers being held accountable for the deaths of Black and Brown Americans is still very low. And meanwhile, people continue to die, and the list of names of the dead continues to grow.

And after the heights of the crowds in 2020 and 2021, the protests in New York City are again dwindling. But I continue to pack my cameras and film and head to the streets when the protests do happen to try and capture the first draft of history of this newest chapter in the Civil Rights Movement.