By Isabella Garcia for Yes!
Broadcast version by Eric Tegethoff for Public News Service
Reporting for the YES! Magazine Media - Oregon News Service Collaboration

PORTLAND, Oregon, August 20 - It's the 84th day of consecutive protest against police brutality and systemic racism in Portland, Oregon. People have gathered at a neighborhood park and are preparing to march to the police union building, the Portland Police Association. They're led by the Black Youth Movement, a group of 20 young people who aim to elevate Black youth voices.

About 60 people mill around the park; some socially distance on grass while others visit the snack table, courtesy of a group called PDX Resistance. The PDX Frontline Drumline, a group of drummers in matching purple shirts, practice a few riffs as the park fills in. Near the street, a group of motorcyclists and bicyclists gather and strategize the best way to block off intersections and keep the marching route clear and safe for the protesters.

One member of the Black Youth Movement (BYM) gets on a megaphone and asks people to start filling into the street behind the car that will set the pace. Just then, the Snack Van - a sprinter van with "BLM" graffitied on the side, known for supporting protests with snacks and medical aid - turns the corner.

"We didn't ask them to come, but we're really fortunate and really happy that someone's going to be here and bring water and stuff like that," says Z, a BYM member.

It's decided that the Snack Van will bring up the rear.

This is how the Portland protests work: autonomously.

Portland has sustained more than five months of protests against police brutality and systemic racism after the death of George Floyd, pausing only when statewide fires created air quality so hazardous that merely stepping outside in a common cloth mask would bring the bitter taste of carcinogenic particles into your mouth. The Portland protests drew national attention when President Trump sent federal troops to "quell" the protests and "protect federal property" in early July. While the national attention has since subsided, Portlanders calling for the defunding of the Portland Police Bureau are continuously being reinvigorated and reimagined.

Underpinning these protests is a network of community groups and mutual aid services created by and for the protesters and supporters of the movement.

Autonomous Organizing

Protests, events, and calls for direct action in Portland are led by a variety of groups, the Black Youth Movement being one of them.

The Black Youth Movement was born at the beginning of the Portland protests in late May, days after the police killing of George Floyd. Several community members that now make up the group met in the streets while protesting alone and formed a connection. They came together to process their emotions collectively, support each other, and elevate youth voices in the movement for Black lives.

"A lot of times our voices aren't heard just because we're youth," says BYM member Marzz. "We felt that it was essential that we not only speak up, but build a platform where other youth feel comfortable and feel like they can say what they want and say what they need."

Marzz emphasized the importance of camaraderie and community within the movement. The group focuses not only on protests, but also on community events, like celebrating LGBTQ Pride month in June, school supply drives, and an end-of-summer skate session for skaters who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

"It's all about creating your community when it comes to protesting, because you may not get change next week, but at least you have your family behind you no matter what," Z explains. "If everything goes to shit one day, we will still be a family and we will still have each other."

The group aims to lead marches and protests once a week, highlighting their list of demands at the beginning of each march. The group's demands are constantly evolving, but are broadly sectioned into policing, health care, housing, and education reforms. Some BYM demands include defunding and demilitarizing the police to restructure the entire policing system, with the end goal of abolition; requiring diversity training by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color for every health care professional before they are allowed to work with any patient; creating a grant or funding program specifically for Black-owned businesses; and including one semester of Black history and one semester of Indigenous history within Portland Public Schools.

Other activists and organizers have developed a science of protesting.

Demetria Hester became a public figure in 2017 when she was assaulted by self-described neo-Nazi Jeremy Christian, who went on to kill two people on a Portland light rail train the next day. For the past three or four years, Hester says, she has been studying the way the police respond to protesters, as well as the most effective ways to bring protesters together. She now organizes for Moms United For Black Lives, a group of moms who support the protests with direct action, as well as mutual aid.

"We have a full game plan," Hester says about Moms. "Make sure that the White people that are on your side are really on your side, that's one."

Hester stresses the importance of White allies being able to follow leadership from Black people, specifically Black women. Beyond that, Hester says that as the moms work on organizing with other mutual aid groups or reaching out to local politicians to promote change at a policy level, they must be educating themselves about Black history and why Black Lives Matter is a needed movement.

"If they don't educate themselves, none of the protests are going to help [the Black community]," Hester says.

The Black Youth Movement and Moms United for Black Lives are just two of several groups organizing direct actions like protests and marches in Portland, not to mention all of the adjacent pop-ups and community events in support of the movement for Black lives.

Recognizing that it's hard to have a complete scope of all of the various actions happening each day, a collective of BIPOC and White allies joined together to organize PDX BLM Events, which is not formally affiliated with the national BLM network. The online calendar and Instagram account aggregates the day's events.

By compiling local event information in one place, the group aims to make it easier for people to participate in local actions by removing the time-consuming process of scouring various Instagram posts, Facebook events, and Tweets for the latest events. Within the first five days the calendar was published, the site had about 50,000 unique visitors, according to an emailed statement from PDX BLM Events.

"We see our calendar project as one part of a broader movement support infrastructure, which also includes organizations distributing food and safety equipment, medics on the frontlines, loved ones at home cooking meals for protesters, and trauma counselors," the group states, acknowledging the expansive protest community.

On August 20, that 84th night of protest, BYM's march made it to the police union building and back to the park without any police interactions, free to express their anger and joy through passionate speeches and exuberant dancing alike.

Meanwhile, across the city, another group of protesters were gathering for a demonstration outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, organized by a group called Safe PDX Protest.

This story was originally reported and written by Isabella Garcia for YES! Magazine. Isabella Garcia is the solutions reporter for YES! Media. She is based in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Twitter @isabellaaliciaa.


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South Dakota's June 4 primary will be the first national election here since ballot dropboxes were banned in 2023.

It is one of 12 states to ban using dropboxes to cast votes, although no state election offices using the boxes in 2020 found a connection to voter fraud or stolen ballots, according to an Associated Press survey. The change is more likely to impact rural and tribal voters, who already face barriers to voting.

Sen. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said although Native voter turnout for tribal elections is good, turnout for statewide elections is lower. He said dropboxes helped.

"It was something that a lot of people utilized on our reservation communities, where you might have to travel 70 miles to go vote," Bordeaux explained.

A 2022 federal report on Native American voting rights encourages local officials to provide sites for voter registration, polling and mail ballot collection in places convenient for Native voters.

Early voting is still possible with a mail-in absentee ballot. But Bordeaux pointed out it can be complicated on reservations, where most homes do not have street addresses. The state's voter registration form allows applicants to describe or draw a map of where they live, but they cannot use post office box numbers.

"I can't get UPS or the typical person to find my house on a map," Bordeaux noted. "It makes it even more difficult for me to figure out how to get our tribal membership so that they can vote, you know, without the P.O. box number."

Plus, South Dakota does not accept tribal ID cards for voter registration. Bordeaux sponsored a bill to change the rule in the last legislative session, but he said it was pulled from the House floor by a different sponsor who predicted it wouldn't pass. The deadline for voter registration is May 20.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Alabama has long been at the forefront of voting rights issues in the United States and despite some progress, advocates said residents continue to face barriers at the ballot box.

In a recent discussion held in Montgomery, the Center for American Progress brought together voting rights experts to shed light on the ongoing struggle against voter suppression in the state.

Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters-Alabama, was on the panel and highlighted ongoing efforts hindering equitable access.

"Just this past year, we've had Wes Allen, and his office has eliminated the phone app for voter registration and being able to check your polling places," Jones pointed out. "Which is a real hardship for people who rely on their phones to be able to do the business that they need to do if they need to register to vote."

The latest way Jones noted ballot access is being blocked is the recent passage of a law criminalizing assistance with absentee ballot applications. Supporters said they believe the measure will prevent ballot harvesting.

She added other ways of restricting access to the ballot box include regulating early voting, voting by mail, voter registration and voter-list maintenance. Other laws bar thousands of persons who have served felony convictions from regaining the right to vote.

JaTaune Bosby Gilchrist, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, said in response to the challenges, federal laws being proposed would bolster voting rights across the country. One of them is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

"The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would essentially allow us a level of equitability across the board from, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act, making voting a holiday, ensuring early voting," Bosby Gilchrist emphasized. "Alabama is one of three states without early voting, including Mississippi and New Hampshire."

The Freedom to Vote Act would help expand voter registration, limit removing voter from voter rolls and even outlines criteria to prevent gerrymandering. Advocates also see engaging young voters and increasing overall voter turnout as ways to combat measures hindering access.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Pennsylvania is among the states where massive protests and tent encampments opposing the war in Gaza are growing.

Elez Beresin-Scher, a sociology student at Bryn Mawr College, is at the Free Gaza encampment on campus. She explained there are about 44 tents full of students who have been sleeping there since Saturday night.

She spoke to Sonali Kolhatkar on the TV and radio show Yes! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali.

"We are here because our college has $5 million of its endowment invested in Israeli technology," Beresin-Scher pointed out. "We know that this money is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians; over 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the State of Israel."

Beresin-Scher added they are calling on the college and the university president's office to divest Israeli holdings and endorse a cease-fire resolution passed by 89% of the student body about a month ago. She added they will be at the encampment indefinitely until their two demands are met.

Pro-Israel groups argued the war is justified given the massacre perpetrated by Hamas, which kicked off the most recent violence. Beresin-Scher noted they are taking a significant risk but they believe genocide is occurring in Palestine and they want to see it end.

"We're recognizing that Palestinian students have been murdered, or are not able to continue their education because every university in Gaza has been bombed, has been destroyed," Beresin-Scher emphasized. "That's the perspective that we're coming from."

Beresin-Scher has been a member of Jewish Voice for Peace since her freshman year, and said it is upsetting to hear the encampments are being portrayed as anti-Semitic. She noted it is something she has never encountered as someone who has organized with Students for Justice in Palestine.

This story was produced based on original reporting by Sonali Kolhatkar for Yes! Media.