Wenn Protest Geschichte schreibt: Black Lives Matter 13 Jahre nach der Entstehung

In the organizer's words:

Black Lives Matter is a relatively young protest movement and yet it has already made history.

Triggered by the acquittal of George Zimmerman after the killing of Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter spread globally in the summer of 2020 - and became the slogan of one of the largest protest movements in US history.

On this evening as part of Black History Month 2026, we will discuss the influence of the movement with Luvena Kopp and ask about the future role of Black Lives Matter in the face of current political and social backlash.

We will also look at Germany and how Black Lives Matter has shaped debates about racism and police violence in this country: What impulses, conflicts and warning signals have come and continue to come from the USA, and what is their impact?

Luvena Kopp is a postdoctoral researcher at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and researches the Black Lives Matter movement, among other things. In August 2025, her latest contribution on this topic was published in the volume "Rassismus in den USA" (ed. Silvan Niedermeier).

Bebero Lehmann is a historian specializing in migration history, colonial history and Black German history. She has been instrumental in ensuring that Black History Month has been celebrated annually in Cologne again since 2018. She also co-founded the Theodor Wonja Michael Library in Cologne, the first Black library in North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2023, she has also been working as a curator for the Museum Selma, the nationwide migration museum currently being created in Cologne by DOMiD.

The event is being held in cooperation with the Cologne VHS and AmerikaHaus NRW e. V.

The event is supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

Price information:

Please register via Eventbrite. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info(at)amerikahaus-nrw.de.