Abstract

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demanded that many of us work and learn from home and that we mask and distance ourselves from others, we witnessed, from our couches, at our desks, and on our cell phones and tablets, the violent murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department. With so much at stake, individuals and communities were compelled to organize and march, together, for Black lives. Journalists and scholars took a keen interest in the presence of Black Lives Matter protests across various landscapes. Rural communities (re)emerged as a place of critical thought and action, disrupting the dominant images of rural spaces as White, monocultural, and conservative. For decades, the tendency to imagine racial inequality as only a problem of urban spaces has obscured Black struggle in rural communities. The Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020 reminded us that Black matters are also rural matters.

How to Cite:

Joubert III, E. & Lensmire, T., (2021) “Introduction: Black Lives Matter and Rural Education”, Journal of Research in Rural Education 37(7), 1–3. doi: https://doi.org/10.26209/jrre3707-01

Rights: Copyright