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Black Lives Matter Activist Deray McKesson Enters Baltimore Mayoral Race

The decision marks a new development in the lifespan of BLM, which since its inception has rallied against establishment politics and the status quo.
Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for GLAAD

Civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, who has been a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality and racial bias in the US criminal justice system, announced late Wednesday his bid for mayor in Baltimore.

McKesson, who rose to prominence out of the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown, has become known as a de facto leader of the BLM movement, a loosely organized coalition of civil rights groups and activists. His distinctive blue Patagonia vest has been seen everywhere from street protests in his native Baltimore to a recent appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

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The decision marks a new development in the lifespan of BLM, which has since its inception rallied against establishment politics and the status quo, and relied heavily on a social-media based grassroots movement that has at times been criticized for its lack of central direction and practicable policy goals.

"I am running to be the 50th mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems," McKesson, 30, said in a posting on medium.com late Wednesday.

McKesson, who filed his paperwork to enter the race just minutes before the Wednesday deadline, is among more than a dozen Democrats who will face off in an April primary. His rivals include former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, state Senator Catherine Pugh, and City Councilor Nick J. Mosby who is the husband of popular Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

Related: Emails Show Feds Have Monitored 'Professional Protester' DeRay Mckesson

Current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in September that she would not seek re-election when her term ends this year.

Last year the city of 600,000 people was hit by the worst riots there in a half-century following the death of Freddie Gray of injuries sustained while in police custody.

Coming after a string of controversial police killings across the United States, Gray's death proved something of a turning point when prosecutors brought charges against six officers within weeks.

But the first of those six trials, in which Baltimore Police Officer William Porter faced charges including involuntary manslaughter, ended in a hung jury in December.

That put Mosby's aggressive schedule into disarray, and a judge last month rejected prosecutors' request to order Porter to testify in the trials of his fellow officers while he awaits retrial.

"I am not the silver bullet for the challenges of our city — no one individual is," said McKesson, a former teacher and the son of two now-recovered drug addicts. "But together, with the right ideas, the right passion, the right people, we can take this city in a new direction."