New, ‘policy-oriented’ Black Lives Matter group emerges from Columbia, SC, protests
The Black Lives Matter movement in Columbia appears to have split into two, independent groups.
The original group, I Can’t Breathe SC, and the newly formed group, Empower SC, share the same goals, but vary in methods. While I Can’t Breathe SC is focusing on public demonstrations and protests, EmpowerSC is focused on enacting specific policy proposals, according to protest organizers.
For example, I Can’t Breathe SC and other groups participated in a Saturday event from Allen University to the State House to celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of slaves, organizer Nathaniel Lawrence told The State.
I Can’t Breathe SC had originally planned an event last week where demonstrators would write messages in chalk on Laurel Street, but that has been postponed to an undetermined date because of the possibility of rain, Lawrence said.
In contrast, Empower SC, formed last Monday, kicked off the week with !a 13-page list of demands to Columbia and state officials. The demands include capping Columbia Police Department’s budget at 30% of city funding and using the $3.16 million saved to invest in programs for seniors, homeless people, the public defenders office, a grant program to help businesses in disadvantaged areas and more, according to a release the group sent Monday.
“Our group is focused on policy,” organizer Rye Martinez told The State. “Policy, Policy, Policy.”
I Can’t Breathe SC, was and is still led by Lawrence, a 26-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer who challenged U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale, for a congressional seat.
Empower SC is led by Rye Martinez, Jazmyne McCrae and Demetris Hill, all of whom are former members of I Can’t Breathe SC.
Lawrence wasn’t aware that members of I Can’t Breathe SC were making another group until it was already formed, he told The State.
“It broke my heart,” when top members of Can’t Breathe SC formed another group, Lawrence said.
Though it may be disruptive to have disagreement in the Black Lives Matter movement, having disagreements on tactics has been common throughout the Civil Rights movement, said Bobby Donaldson, a University of South Carolina associate professor of history and the director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research.
For example, while demonstrators were using civil disobedience to protest segregated busing in the 1960s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was holding protests at state houses and filing legal paperwork, Donaldson said.
Having groups with different tactics isn’t a bad thing for a movement, Donaldson said. Rather, all of the Civil Rights movements’ successes are a “direct result of synergy of activism,” Donaldson said.
One issue that has drawn controversy among some Black Lives Matter protesters is Lawrence’s history of organizing bungled protests or creating social justice groups that dissolved without much of an explanation, according to articles posted in the DailyKos and the progressive publication, San Diego Free Press.
Lawrence disputes many of the facts in these articles, but acknowledges he made mistakes while organizing prior protests, and said they were the result of inexperience and taking on more than he could manage.
“I used to go on Facebook and create a bunch of groups to create change,” Lawrence said. “I was just a young organizer who wanted to make some change.”
Lawrence said those early missteps and the ensuing articles have cost him jobs, including one with the Tom Steyer presidential campaign.
“It’s been haunting me for the last three years,” Lawrence said.
Asked if these concerns contributed to the split, both Lawrence and Martinez demurred.
“We don’t want anything to overshadow the movement,” Martinez said.
Though the groups are moving in different directions, they are still on good terms, Lawrence said.
“We still communicate,” Lawrence told The State. “We share their policies.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 12:48 PM.