Ten Lives, Ten Demands: Life and Death Stories, and a Black Activist's Blueprint for Racial Justice

Beginning with George Floyd, this powerful manifesto by acclaimed commentator and community leader Solomon Jones tells the stories of real people whose lives and all-too-often tragic deaths illuminate the outrages of a society that refuses to value Black Lives. While explaining how each case was impacted by specific instances of structural racism, We Demand distills the essential injustice perpetrated in each instance, and details a strategy to address, redress, and rectify the crimes committed by our justice system.. Taken together, these demands form the plan that is necessary to repair and restore our society, while at the same time assuring that these victims did not suffer or die in vain.

From the absence or disabling of body cameras, to the no-knock entry in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor to the police misconduct that wrongfully imprisons innocent Black men like Terrance Williams, Jones examines the systems that fuel racism in criminal justice. With ten demands drawn directly from ten lives, he draws a roadmap to justice, and challenges the system to follow through.