Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay Mckesson Is Running for Mayor of Baltimore | Sojourners

Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay Mckesson Is Running for Mayor of Baltimore

YouTube / CNN
DeRay Mckesson discussing protests in Baltimore on April 28, 2015. Photo via YouTube / CNN

Minutes before the deadline to file for the Democratic primary in Baltimore on Feb. 3, DeRay Mckesson completed the paperwork to enter the primary race.

With nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter, DeRay, as he's often known on Twitter, has gained widespread notoriety for his role organizing and documenting the Black Lives Matter movement. A former school administrator and Teach for America alum, DeRay first caught the public eye during protests in Ferguson and Baltimore. He is the 13th candidate to enter the Democratic primary in his hometown.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

"Baltimore is a city of promise and possibility," the Black Lives Matter member told The Baltimore Sun. "We can't rely on traditional pathways to politics and the traditional politicians who walk those paths if we want transformational change."

He said he planned to release a platform within a week. He said it would include a call for internal school system audits to be made public.

Mckesson was the 13th and final candidate to jump into the primary race. In deep-blue Baltimore, the Democratic primary has long determined the winner of the general election.

In an essay for Medium, DeRay further explained why he is running for mayor, and why he believes in the city of Baltimore:

Perhaps because I have seen both the impact of addiction and the power of recovery, I hold tight to the notion that our history is not our destiny. That we are, and always will be, more than our pain. What we choose to do today and tomorrow will shape our future and build our reality. It is why I believe so strongly that Baltimore is, and has always been, a city of promise and possibility.

Read more at The Baltimore Sun and at Medium.

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