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Last summer saw Black Lives Matter protests spread through the world - even in the midst of a global pandemic - as people from all backgrounds demanded immediate change to racial inequality.

Protests across the world, including London, grabbed headlines for weeks forcing global companies to pledge allegiance to being more active in fighting racism. Celebrities and influencers also called for racism to be addressed in industries such as music and Hollywood.

MyLondon News and Reach's other south east England titles conducted a survey to see what our readers thought of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement six months on.

Nearly two-thirds of the 1,065 readers who people who responded to the survey believe the BLM movement actually contributed to a rise in hate crime or ill feeling in the community with 72% of people thinking the BLM movement did not contribute to a rise in racial in equality in their area.

You can get all the latest MyLondon headlines in your email inbox by signing up here

Art curator Bolanle Tajudeen, 32, last year led the creation of a special Black History Month mural in Kensington inspired by BLM and the Republic of Frestonia.

Ms Tajudeen, who also founded Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture, said she felt the BLM movement did increase ill feelings, sharing that she had to block social media friends because of their insensitivity.

" I'd definitely say I've stopped talking to people since BLM because of ill feelings," Ms Tajudeen told MyLondon.

She added: "I saw people's true colours. Reactions were very in line with white fragility. When you talk about race some white people, they don't know how to decentre themselves from the conversation and listen."

Our survey also revealed that of those who responded, 84% said they didn't think there needed to be more demonstrations while almost two thirds felt Black British history did not need to be taught in schools.

Yvette Williams MBE a lead campaigner for Justice4Grenfell told MyLondon that demonstrations are the key to the much-needed changes society needs.

Ms Williams said: "Demonstrations are a legitimate form of protest, and it can be empowering for the participants this is very much the case with BLM.

"Change needs to happen in a range of strata, whether that be academia, education, law, economics, employment, criminal justice how ever grassroots protest are essential to any cause a major example of this if the anti-apartheid movement."

Ms Williams also strongly advocates for Black British history to be taught in schools.

"Black British history should be taught full stop," Ms Williams said.

She added: "It should not have a separate label. The question that should be asked is should British History be told truthfully and inclusive of all factors not just some?"

Many readers also felt that the BLM movement had no impact on racial inequality but in fact made things worse, though some thought it had made others more aware of racial inequality.

Sheraine Williams who newly sits on the board of the Westway Trust, a charity recently found to have been r acist to its beneficiaries, also spoke to MyLondon about the survey.

Ms Williams said:"The BLM movement did an amazing job of raising the awareness of Black trauma and inequalities on many different fronts. It is disappointing that Black people quickly became dis-empowered. They don't seem to understand that the system is not designed to benefit them. We have yet to realise only we can make the changes we need.

"The Westway Trust is working toward dealing with these inequalities in light of the findings of the Tutu report into institutional racism. There is a lot of work to do and it will take time."

We'd love to hear how the Black Lives Matter movement last year changed your life. If you've got a story please get in touch by emailing thomas.kingsley@reachplc.com .

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London activists react to shocking findings from Black Lives Matter six months on survey - My London

Martin Luther King addressing civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., in April 1965. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Yahoo Life is providing an up-close look at one of the most important and pivotal sites in the civil rights movement: the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

Using augmented reality from home, explore the 3-D bridge and its history from its inception as a tribute to a Confederate general to the site of Kings monumental march to Montgomery and, more recently, John Lewiss funeral procession.

Serving as a guide on this immersive journey is historian, author and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 2016, he produced and hosted the PBS docuseries Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise, which covers the events that transpired on the Pettus Bridge.

Gates recently spoke with Yahoo Life about the legacy of King and the Selma marches, the Black Lives Matter protests and the issue of the bridges namesake, a Confederate brigadier general from Alabama who served in the U.S. Senate.

Whats the lasting impact of the civil rights marches?

I think the lasting impact of the civil rights marches is clear: Without them, the Voting Rights Act would not have been passed as soon as it was, and African-Americans would have been indefinitely delayed in participating in Southern politics. They also are blueprints for change and confronting injustice today.

Dr. King said, and I quote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny.

How can Dr. Kings message and legacy be applied to whats happening today?

Its really a challenge for us to call out injustice wherever it's found, and in all of its manifestations, while also recognizing the responsibilities we owe to one another as citizens of this democracy to lift one another up with dignity and compassion. Dr. King's calls for racial cooperation and Black economic equality, unfortunately, are still relevant today.

How are last years Black Lives Matter protests similar or different from Dr. Kings marches in the 1960s?

Story continues

The Black Lives Matter protests took cues from Dr. King's marches by recognizing the power of massing people together in the name of justice. They seized the attention of the media and thus of the entire nation. Other similarities include a focus on youth, interracial and interfaith coalitions, and the role of prophetic leaders like the Rev. William Barber.

Differences include the fact that it was more secular and truly national and international in scope more similar to the structural issues Dr. King was fighting for at the end of his life, and less about de jure [or legalized] segregation.

Whats the impact of the Rev. Raphael Warnocks election to the U.S. Senate?

It marks another milestone in the ongoing civil rights struggle. [Hes] the inheritor of the King legacy as the minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church. And his election is truly historic in that he's the first Black elected Senator in history from the state of Georgia and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the former Confederacy. He also brings the Black church with him in the tradition of the ministers who served during reconstruction. Three African-American members of Congress were ministers and 243 African-American office-holders, overall, were also ministers during reconstruction.

What are your thoughts on Vice President-elect Kamala Harriss equally historic election?

I'm ecstatic over Kamala Harriss election! She's a proud HBCU graduate and the first woman vice president and the first Black and Indian vice president. She was born in October 1964, just a few months before the Selma marches. Her election as the first woman of color to be vice president means that Black women, so long held down by the glass ceilings of racism and gender discrimination, can aspire to hold one of the most powerful offices in the entire world.

The fact that she enters office after the shameful, racist administration of Donald Trump is symbolic of the country's potential to right the wrongs of the past, as well as the present. But we still have a long way to go.

Theres been much discussion over changing the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Thoughts?

The final way to honor the memory of John Lewis and his fellow activists who were beaten so badly on Bloody Sunday would be to change the name to the Congressman John Lewis Bridge.

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How Martin Luther King Jr.s Selma marches influenced the Black Lives Matter movement - Yahoo Lifestyle

2020 will likely be remembered as the year of the Pandemic, but the year also marked a sea change in racial justice activism, as Black Lives Matter protests brought calls for police reform from the streets to city halls and state houses across the country including Massachusetts.

In Georgia in February, an African American, Ahmaud Abery, was shot to death by a white man while jogging; In March, a 26-year-old Black woman, Breonna Taylor, was gunned down in her own home by police executing a warrant for someone else. These cases provoked angry local reactions, but It was not until the killing of an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis caught on video tape that a national wave of protests erupted. The images of Officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds reignited the Black Lives Matter Movement that had first emerged in 2013.

On Sunday May 31, thousands gathered in downtown Boston and Nubian Square Roxbury, and toward twilight the two protests converged on Beacon Hill.

That evening, small groups splintered from the overwhelmingly peaceful marches to confront police, smash windows and litter the streets with graffiti. Some -- including individuals the Suffolk County District Attorneys office later found had nothing to do with the protests -- looted shops.

It was a beautiful demonstration, we had six hours of peace and of course, a lot of people are going to dwell on the negativity that happened after, you know, supposedly it turned into a riot, said Carrie Mays, a 19-year-old BLM activist from Dorchester. But I just want to say that those were not the young people that organized that movement or that march that day.

But violence in the streets was the main headline the next morning as merchants swept glass from the front of stores on Newbury Street and elsewhere.

Still, those incidents, did not derail the movement. A few days later, hundreds sat in the streets and blocked traffic on Blue Hill Avenue for 8 and a half minutes. And then tens of thousands streamed through Franklin Park to protest police violence.

Ian and Carol Ann OConnell, a white married couple from Jamaica Plain, said they came in spite of the pandemic and concerns about potential violence.

I was fearful to come given the violence of the recent protests, but to me, I felt like that's how black people feel every day from our law enforcement and from society, Carol Ann said. So, I felt selfish to be afraid when thats something they go through every day.

The protest continued into the night with hundreds descending on Boston Police Headquarters, where some cops took a knee in solidarity

The social justice movement that accelerated during the spring and summer captured the sympathy and imagination of the country. Black Lives Matter signs sprouted in windows and front yards in cities and suburbs, from Lincoln Massachusetts to Lincoln Nebraska. An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in July showed that 63% of Americans supported the BLM movement.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court released an unprecedented joint letter saying As judges we must look afresh at what we are doing or failing to do to root out any conscious or unconscious bias in our courtrooms. We need to reexamine why, too often, our criminal justice system fails to treat African-Americans the same as white Americans, and recommit ourselves to the systemic change needed to make equality under the law an enduring reality for all.

The protests also brought new interest in old cases of black people killed by police. Locally, attention turned to two high profile cases: Eurie Stamps, killed in Framingham in 2011 when a SWAT team came to arrest his son and shot Stamps as he lay on the floor; and DJ Henry, a young Easton man shot by police in Pleasantville, N.Y, in 2010 as he was trying to leave a club where there had been a disturbance.

D.J. Henry, that's definitely a case that we always discuss, said Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said at a civil rights task force meeting in October.

Because the people have voiced their opinion about that officer involved shooting with D.J. Henry. So, we in law enforcement, we definitely have to continue to be better each and every day.

But BLM activists were not pushing for a discussion about law enforcement practices. Many were calling for taxpayer money to be reallocated under the slogan defund the police. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took $12 million from the police overtime budget and reallocated to homelessness service and the Boston City Council created a new office to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

Statewide, Massachusetts activists had to settle for a compromise embodied in a bill on Beacon Hill that would establish a system of police accountability and oversight.

In the fall support for the BLM Movement started to decline because of images of violent protests, opposition to defunding the police and against a furious backlash by conservatives, led by President Donald Trump who turned much of his re-election campaign into a call for law and order. Black Lives Matter signs were ripped from lawns in Arlington and other communities and sympathizers were cast in a bad light. A pro BLM social media posting by Democratic state representative, Tram Nguyen of Andover, triggered a furious reaction from conservative members of Vietnamese communities, who accused her of abetting communism and anarchy.

They are attempting to brand me, among other things, as a traitor to the Vietnamese American community for standing up in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and as a dishonor to my parents, my family, she told GBH News. And the reality of it is that I'm none of these things.

Social justice organizers pushed back, most notably in the runup to the November election, where many like Carrie Mays turned from summer street protests to signing up new voters in October.

We registered over three hundred and twenty people to vote in Boston less than a span of a month, she told GBH News.

And BLM organizers were rewarded on November 3 with the defeat of Trump.

University of Illinois historian Barbara Ransby the author of Making All Black Lives Matter says beyond the election the resurgent BLM Movement of 2020 will have a lasting impact:

Movement and organizers have played a critical role in changing both the climate and the culture around critical issues, but also forcing politicians to address issues they wouldn't be addressing otherwise, she said.

But Ransby and others say it will still require black Americans and what she describes as white allies to keep the fire under the feet of the nation to make those changes complete.

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2020 in Review: A Year Of Tragedy And Triumph For Black Lives Matter - wgbh.org

To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our communitys experience in 2020. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sent shockwaves throughout the world. Within Chapel Hill and Orange County, the Black Lives Matter movement was backed by thousands of residents willing to step up and speak out for their beliefs.

The first Black Lives Matter march in Chapel Hill on June 3 which featured thousands of people marching on Franklin Street began as an idea between two friends.

This was put together by two students who just wanted to see something, said UNC student Emile Charles. Chapel Hill had been silent, it had been quiet and nothing was happening. And now to see over one thousand people come out is incredible.

Like many other protests throughout the country in the wake of George Floyds death, the first march in Chapel Hill was advertised over social media. The event drew people from all over, including from Raleigh, Cary and even Atlanta.

MikaylaThompson, who said she drove from Clayton to attend the June 3 march, held a sign that said All Lives Cannot Matter Until Black Lives Do.

The more we talk about it, she said, the more [people] will have to think about it and talk about it, and things will have to change.

Another march ensued on June 5 in Hillsborough again spurred by an idea between two teenagers.

Ive seen a lot of people in this area wanting to post about it and be more active in it, but they didnt have an opportunity, said Colin Davis, one of the organizers of the June 5 protest. Some people cant drive to Raleigh to protest. So we figured wed set something up here and let people speak their minds.

A homemade Hillsborough Black Lives Matter sign is displayed in Hillsborough on Friday, June 5. (Dakota Moyer/Chapelboro.com)

Davis and fellow organizer Aidan Salmeron said they expected around a hundred people to show up, but the crowd in Hillsborough numbered several hundred.

A June 6 march sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP chapter provided a powerful moment when protesters knelt in Franklin Street for eight minutes and 46 seconds the length of time Minneapolis Police officers knelt on the neck of Floyd. Floyd died as a result of mechanical asphyxia, or being choked.

The death ofBreonna Taylor a black woman fatally shot by Louisville police officers in March also became a rallying point for protesters in Chapel Hill. A June 5 protest was organized on the day that would have been Taylors birthday, with many of the organizers and protesters dressing in purple in her honor.

Chants of say her name followed by Breonna Taylor were shouted as the demonstrators marched from the SASB Plaza on UNCs campus to South Building, the universitys administrative building.

During the protest, speakers criticized UNC for its ties to white supremacists and condemned leadership for failure of equitably supporting African American students.

The Black Lives Matter also spread to the corporate level in Chapel Hill. Hundreds of UNC Health workers gathered outsideUNC Medical Centers on June 23 for a march to raise awareness for health inequities in North Carolina and the United States amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

We join together to show our support and our commitment to fighting health inequities, said UNC Hospitals president Janet Hadar before the march.

UNC student-athletes, some of the most high-profile individuals in Chapel Hill, used their platform to protest for racial injustice as well. An August 29 march down Franklin Street organized by student-athletes was represented by every UNC sports program.

Daniel McArthur, who is white, said the players demonstration represents something more than the Carolina Family and instead represents the need for change by his race.

White people: stand up for your fellow Black people, said the captain for the mens track and field team. Because guess what? Theres no difference at all and its time for us to realize that as a society.

The protest by UNC student-athletes came shortly after a police shooting inKenosha, Wisconsin, where officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times.

The Black Lives Matter movement also sparked a conversation about systemic racism and social injustice among local elected officials. Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood told 97.9 The Hill in July that there is systemic racism within law enforcement.

We have got to accept the fact on the law enforcement side that there is systemic racism and were part of that problem, Blackwood said. If we dont do that, were never going to get anywhere. Weve also got to accept the fact that weve got to change some of the practices that we have. If we dont do that we wont get anywhere itll stay just as it is.

The movement also led local police departments to ban chokeholds as a tactic for restraining people or self-defense. The Chapel Hill Town Council also passed a resolution asking for clear accountability for officers who violate its policies regarding its required dash and body cameras, as well as ending traffic stops for low-level violations and publishing more departmental reviews.

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Top Stories of 2020: The Black Lives Matter Movement - Chapelboro.com

It was in July 2016. In some ways it feels like just yesterday to Rebekkah Brunson and Cheryl Reeve. Other times, it seems like a completely different age.

Philando Castile had just been shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights. An African American man named Alton Sterling had been shot by police outside a shop in Baton Rouge, La., not far from where Seimone Augustus grew up.

Reeve, who was then and still is the head coach of the Lynx, asked her captains at the time: What do you want to do?

Brunson, Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen talked, and agreed. Before their home game that July 9, in a pregame news conference, they wore T-shirts that said, "Change starts with us" and "Justice & accountability" on the front, with Castile and Sterling's names on the back along with "Black Lives Matter."

That night four off-duty police officers there to work security walked off the job.

Four years ago, this sort of display by athletes was considered by some to be controversial or inflammatory.

Move ahead four years to a difficult 2020, when the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor among many others at the hands of police has brought social justice to the forefront and made athletes more willing to speak out about them.

"There was outrage when we did it in 2016," Brunson said. "But I feel now the climate has changed."

Brunson is now a Lynx assistant coach who spent the summer with the team in the WNBA bubble in Florida, a location change necessitated by COVID-19 concerns. It was a season dedicated, by the league, to Taylor with their "Say Her Name" campaign.

Some players like former Lynx guard Renee Montgomery took the season off entirely to work for social change. When Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia a part-owner of the Atlanta Dream came out against Black Lives Matter, players wore the name of her opponent on their warmup shirts. When Jacob Blake was shot in Kenosha, Wis., in August, the WNBA postponed three games in protest.

"It wasn't like the reason people were protesting had changed," Brunson said. "It was that you just couldn't ignore it any longer. Being in the bubble wasn't ideal in terms of what we were going through to get a season in. But it gave us an opportunity to use our voices, as a group, collectively to create some change about issues we were very passionate about. It ended up being a beautiful thing."

This is happening across American sports.

Just a few years ago quarterback Colin Kaepernick was essentially blackballed from the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem. Before this season, in a podcast, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the league's mistake. "I wish we had listened earlier, Kaep, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to," Goodell said. This year, several NFL players including prominent members of the Vikings took a knee.

Bruce Maxwell, the former A's catcher who took a knee before the anthem during a game in September 2017, received a lot of pushback. Three years later, players and coaches from around MLB took a knee on opening day. The Twins played their games at Target Field with signs honoring Floyd and with Black Lives Matter displayed in the outfield.

The NBA season, also in a Florida bubble, was played out on courts painted with Black Lives Matter. Star players like Carmelo Anthony and Damian Lillard marched in George Floyd protests.

Wild defenseman Matt Dumba, who helped found the Hockey Diversity Alliance, was asked by the league to give a speech on racism before the NHL playoffs began, then he became the first NHL player to kneel during the national anthem.

Wolves players like Josh Okogie and Karl-Anthony Towns attended a downtown rally calling for justice for Floyd. The team has launched a web series called "Voices" that deals with issues of racism. D'Angelo Russell, a Louisville native, participated in rallies for justice for Taylor.

A lot has changed since 2016. Reeve remembers certain members of the Lynx and Wolves organization who were concerned about that pregame protest.

"The No. 1 thing we were trying to convey was that we couldn't sit idly by and watch murders at the hands of the police against Black and brown communities," Reeve said. "Change was the No. 1 thing we were after. So it was, 'Change starts with us.' It was also being bold saying Black Lives Matter. Fast-forward to George Floyd and how comfortable the vast majority of people are using the phrase Black Lives Matter, how fast it had become acceptable. Not everyone, of course. But it's significantly different than it was in 2016, certainly in our organization."

For Brunson, there is a little pride knowing she was a part of that protest four years ago. She still has that warmup shirt, something she'll cherish forever. Since then Brunson has retired and become a Lynx assistant. Whalen retired and is coaching the Gophers women's basketball team, with those players wearing Black Lives Matter shirts during warmups. Moore put her career on hold to fight for change.

"From a team standpoint, I do feel we set the tone for teams coming together," Brunson said.

Others are following.

"Now is the time for action," Reeve said. "What you're seeing is action, the collective will of not only the women of the WNBA, but the men of the NBA, the different sports."

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Minnesota Lynx were among the early promoters of the Black Lives Matter movement - Minneapolis Star Tribune