Deray Mckesson, an equal-rights activist who has participated in projects in support of issues that Black Lives Matter focus on. As a teen, Mckesson was an organizer and was the Chairman of Youth As Resources. He later than in 2007 graduated from Bowdoin College as acting class and student government, with degrees in government and legal studies.
Several years after graduation, in April of 2015, he as well as Johnetta Elzie, Samuel Sinyangwe, and Brittany Packnett launched “Mapping Police Violence”, a project that showed collected data of all the members of the black community killed in 2014 as a result of police brutality. He has worked on other projects with that group and was awarded the Howard Zinn Freedom to Write award in 2015 along with Johnetta Elzie for their activism. Later in the year of 2015 Mckesson was a guest speaker at Yale Divinity School and spoke at the GLAAD Gala on his life as a gay man. In early July of 2016 Mckesson was arrested while live streaming during a protest, he was soon released with charges of obstructing a highway and the charges were later cleared.
A few days after his arrest other activists, politicians, and police officials met with President Obama to discuss the relationship between black communities and law enforcement officials.
