Washington DC – Today, on this National Day of Mourning, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released the following statement from LCV President Gene Karpinski:

“Today, on this National Day of Mourning, we mourn George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, David McAtee, Tony McDade, and all Black lives taken by racist police involved violence. LCV stands in solidarity with the movement for Black lives and we know that all Black lives matter.

We have not been a fully-fledged ally for racial justice and equity. We have not always spoken up or we have taken too long to do so. We must and will do better. We will show up for the Black community — from our staff to families across the country. And we will fight for Black communities to be safe in every environment.

We stand with the Black-led and racial justice organizations who are propelling this movement forward and have been doing this work all along — organizations like NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Bail Fund Network, Black Lives Matter, Movement for Black Lives, Color of Change, and Black Visions Collective.

We are committed to supporting our Black staff, Black communities and Black-led organizations who are leading this fight. This starts with financially supporting Black-led organizations who are critical to this fight for racial justice and accountability. We will both directly contribute, and encourage our members to contribute, to frontline and national organizations focused on racial justice. We are committed to speaking out against injustice and we are committed to continuing to address and dismantle racist policies.

We acknowledge that this work must continue past this moment, and that supporting Black lives is not just a trend. Reading the powerful statement from our Chispa colleagues, we are inspired to continue to learn from their equitable work on the frontlines and apply that same lens to all of LCV’s work on a national scale. We pledge to work harder in the fight for racial justice and equity and hold ourselves accountable to these commitments. Black lives are worth fighting for.”

###