Johnetta "Netta" Elzie (born April 16, 1989) is an American civil rights activist. She is one of the leaders in the activist group We The Protesters and co-edits the Ferguson protest newsletter ''This Is the Movement'' with fellow activist DeRay Mckesson.

Early life

Elzie grew up in North County St. Louis, where her mother owned a hair salon. Elzie attended Our Lady of Good Counsel, a private school where she was often the only black student in her class. She then studied journalism in college at Southeast Missouri State.

Civil rights activism

Elzie became involved in activism following the shooting of Michael Brown. On August 9, 2014, via

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, Elzie learned of Brown's death and that his body was left for hours in the street a short distance from her own childhood home. Mourning the recent death of her own mother, Elzie drove to the site of Brown's death and began tweeting about the scene she encountered. She became involved in protests and in organizing volunteers and donations, as well as in continuing to document events; in his book '' They Can't Kill Us All'', ''

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'' reporter Wesley Lowery described Elzie as "the most prominent of the citizen journalists telling the story of Ferguson." Elzie has been active in the

Ferguson, Missouri Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,527. History What is now the city of Ferguson was founded in 1855, when William ...

and

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

protests and she, with Mckesson and data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe, created "Mapping Police Violence", which collected data on people killed by police during 2014.Day, Elizabeth (19 July 2015
"#BlackLivesMatter: the birth of a new civil rights movement"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 9 July 2016 The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' has named Elzie to its list of "The new civil rights leaders: Emerging voices in the 21st century." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' profiled Elzie and McKesson as leaders of the group that built "the nation's first 21st-century civil rights movement." In January 2015 ''

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'' named her one of the leaders of the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...

Movement. Elzie uses social media outlets such as

in her activism. She has been a field organizer for Amnesty International, and has volunteered with a girls' group called the Sophia Project in St. Louis.Berry, Emanuele (January 22, 2015). "MLK Day Clash At Harris-Stowe Leads To Conversation". St. Louis Public Radio. http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/mlk-day-clash-harris-stowe-leads-conversation

Honors

Elzie and McKesson were awarded the

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...

Freedom to Write Award from the New England branch of

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in 2015 for their activism. They were also named as two of the 53 people on ''Fortune'''s 2015 list of "World’s Greatest Leaders."

References

External links

* *
We The Protesters

''This Is the Movement''

FERGUSON FORWARD 'When I close my eyes at night, I see people running from tear gas'
at

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elzie, Johnetta 1989 births Living people Activists for African-American civil rights Black Lives Matter people Place of birth missing (living people) Southeast Missouri State University alumni Activists from Missouri 20th-century African-American people

Early life

Civil rights activism

Honors

See also

References

External links