By Terresa Moses
Each individual has their place in the movement for liberation and justice. De- signers, specifically, have the unique opportunity to use their problem-solving skill set and design aesthetics to advocate for the humanity and rights of their fellow community members. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centu- ries, there have been numerous instances that reflect the power of design as a tool for amplifying and supporting the Movement for Black Lives. From the 1936 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) “A Black Man was Lynched Yesterday” flag flown the day after a lynching occurred in the United States to the “I Am A Man” protest posters1 for the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, to the 2020 community murals created after the murder of George Floyd, art and design have been used as a means to unify messaging to support and further the rights of Black people in the United States. With the work I have created for the racial justice movement as an active community member and com- munity-engaged scholar in Minneapolis, I use some of the same tactics as in the aforementioned designs to support the outcries of the communities I exist within. In this visual essay, I intend to explore the importance of community protests, and how my participation in said protests inspired a typographic response which can be seen throughout activist-led events that call for solidarity, justice, and liberation for the Black communities experiencing the widely known violence by the police state. While the ultimate goal of my work is to perpetuate the idea that abolition is the only means to liberation, I use design as a tool to hold space for the voice of the community, while we work towards a collective future free from violence.
