They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement

Written by Wesley Lowery

Narrated by Ron Butler

A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it.

Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today.

In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.

Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination.

They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Nov 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781478964506

Wesley Lowery

Wesley Lowery is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author. He is the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, and a Journalist in Residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. In nearly a decade as a national correspondent, Lowery has specialized in issues of race, justice and law enforcement. He led the Washington Post team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016 for the creation and analysis of a real-time database to track fatal police shootings in the United States. His project, “Murder with Impunity,” an unprecedented look at unsolved homicides in major American cities, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2019. Lowery's first book, They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement, was a New York Times bestseller and awarded the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews for They Can't Kill Us All

[librolindsay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent overview of the early Black Lives Matter movement--the events that created it and several prominent activists championing it. I nearly broke down in tears in public revisiting the events that happened here in my hometown of St. Louis. Necessary read for anyone interested in social justice.

[montzaleew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery is an audible book I got from the library. I live in a few counties away from St. Louis and the reputation of the police dept racist actions have always been known to everyone in all the surrounding counties. All the major family activities are in St. Louis such as museums, zoos, and such so everyone, white or black are careful. But if you are of color or different: wear dreadlocks, different clothes, ... you are a mark. So when the Ferguson riots happened, no one was surprised at uproar. No one was surprised that the cop was not convicted.
This book tells of this reporter's story and of others as he comes to Ferguson, is arrested after only two days while sitting in McDonalds with other journalist as they are taking notes and getting coffee, blocks away from the action. He goes on to describe what he sees, what it was like, what his fellow journalist encounter, the mood, the history, and so much more. A very good, well thought out book. He worked at the Washington Post at the time. He was young, black and a target just for being in Ferguson.

[susan.macura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is obvious that this author is a journalist because of the crisp and concise writing style he uses, as well as the objective manner he often uses in discussing the issues in this book. The author makes no secret that he is black and shares his history, something that gives the reader invaluable insight into what he brings to the table. I found this book to be a very informative discussion as to why various members of the black community have become activists in a quest for justice and equal treatment under the law. The issues he raises are complex with no easy solutions, but as he suggests, for the United States to be successful in the future, they must be resolved.