To honor our ongoing commitments to transparency and accountability to the larger community that makes all our work possible, we want to provide an update on how CCBF has been supporting people arrested in connection with recent Black Lives Matter uprisings. This includes the reparations taking and property destruction in downtown Chicago on Sunday night. If you would like more context on that, please read some of the articles linked at the bottom of this post!

Since Friday, August 7th, CCBF has paid $93,145 to free 36 people in three counties who were arrested while supporting the Black Lives Matter movement or otherwise rejecting police violence against Black people. This includes one person in DuPage County, 10 people in Winnebago County, and 25 people in Cook County. We expect to pay more bonds in Cook County today and will continue to do so as needed.

This is only possible because of the work of Black liberation organizers on the ground, CCBF volunteers, and our partners in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, National Lawyers Guild of Chicago, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Chicago and everyone running jail support, and all the people who donated to ensure the resources to pay bond were available. Yesterday, two CCBF volunteers spent a combined 10 hours in the jail paying ransoms to free 23 people! This is a good reminder that it takes a lot more than just money to pay bonds and free people. While it also takes lots of money, CCBF does not need more donations at this time. Please continue to direct money to grassroots community organizing groups!

For more context on the uprisings, resistance to police violence, and how you can get involved, read this press release from and support the work of Black Lives Matter Chicago! For additional context, we recommend these two articles: In Defense of Looting and All Power to the Looters.