The Black Movement Law Project (BMLP) provides legal support to left-of-center activists and protestors who have been arrested by authorities. ¹ The organization has been fiscally sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), an organizing group that serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous left-of-center initiatives. ^{2 3}

The Black Movement Law Project is also a member of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 left-of-center racial-advocacy organizations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. ⁴

Background

The Black Movement Law Project (BMLP) is a group of lawyers and legal activists who provide legal support to communities across the country. The organization also provides legal support to left-of-center activists and protestors who have been arrested by authorities. BMLP has been fiscally sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), an organizing group that serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous left-wing initiatives. According to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, BMLP was listed on AFGJ’s fiscal-sponsorship page as of June 2023. ^{2 3 5}

The organization was created after demonstrations in 2014 and 2015, some of which turned violent, in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; and Cleveland, Ohio, which were related to the Black Lives Matter movement. The organization states that it provides a “rapid response system” to support activists during “mass demonstrations and arrests.” ^{5 6}

BMLP also trains legal observers, trained volunteers who monitor protests to look for infringements by police on attendees’ rights, and helps create local “jail support teams,” which help activists who have been arrested or jailed. ^{5 7}

Call for Reparations

The Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of more than 50 left-of-center racial-advocacy organizations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The organization created the #ReparationsMonday campaign in 2020. The campaign was based around Giving Tuesday, a campaign on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving which calls for people to donate to charities. ⁸

Advocates of the Movement for Black Lives claimed that Giving Tuesday donations promoted an unequal system as organizations “with the largest PR budgets […] receive the bulk of these donations.” The organization also called for the creation of the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. ^{8 9}

The Black Movement Law Project is a member of the Movement for Black Lives and was listed as one of the organizations involved in a Movement for Black Lives collective fund related to #ReparationsMonday. ^{4 8 10}

People

Abraham Hassen, co-founder of the Black Movement Law Project, was previously a field law clerk at Service Employees International Union Local 11, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of America’s largest, most controversial, and most politically involved labor unions. ¹¹

Hassen was also a defense coordinator at the National Lawyers Guild from 2011 until 2014, co-founded BMLP in 2015, and is a visiting assistant professor of law at Penn State Dickinson Law School. ¹¹

Nathan Sheard is also a co-founder of BMLP. Sheard worked as a government relations assistant for the Greater New York Health Care Facility Association from 1990 until 1997, and worked in management roles at multiple entertainment companies, including Epic Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Virgin Records. ¹²

Sheard began working at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a left-of-center digital advocacy organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, in 2017. He was an organizing director until 2021, when he became deputy managing director, holding that role until January 2023 when Sheard became the managing director of advocacy, a position he held as of 2025. ¹²

1. “Black Movement-Law Project.” Black Movement-Law Project. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://bmlp.org/.
2. “AfGJ’s Fiscally Sponsored Projects.” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20230607165513/https://afgj.org/fsp/fiscally-sponsored-projects.
3. “Black Movement Law Project.” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://afgj.salsalabs.org/blackmovementlawproject/index.html.
4. “The Movement for Black Lives Fund.” Giving Compass. June 4, 2020. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://givingcompass.org/fund/the-movement-for-black-lives-fund.
5. “Black Movement-Law Project.” Providing critical legal and community support in . Accessed July 7, 2025. https://bmlp.org/.
6. Turan, Cyan. “Black Lives Matter: a timeline of the movement.” April 21, 2021. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a32728194/black-lives-matter-timeline-movement/.
7. “What is a Legal Observer?.” What is a Legal Observer? | Green and Black Cross. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://greenandblackcross.org/guides/what-is-a-legal-observer/.
8. Jarrin, Sofia. “Black Movement Organizations Call for Reparations Instead of Giving Tuesday.” Nonprofit Quarterly. December 1, 2020. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/black-movement-organizations-call-for-reparations-instead-of-giving-tuesday/.
9. “H.R.40 – Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.” Congress. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/40.
10. “Reparations Monday.” The Urban News. November 25, 2020. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://theurbannews.com/business/2020/reparations-monday/.
11. “Abraham Hassen – Experience.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrahamhassen/details/experience/.
12. “Nathan Sheard – Experience.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-sheard-a946191/details/experience/.