KOKOnista Of The Day: Sasha Johnson Is ‘Black Panther of Oxford’ And The BLM Activist We Should Be Remembering In Our Prayers

Sasha Johnson, aka “Oxford’s Black Panther” was one of the organisers of the first-ever Million People March to protest against systemic racism in the UK. Sasha is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head in south London yesterday 23 May 2021, Sasha needs everyone’s prayers.

Sasha Johnson is a British Black Lives Matter and Taking The Initiative Party (TTIP) activist. A graduate of Oxford Brookes University, she has been involved in Rhodes Must Fall, Black Lives Matter and Kill the Bill protests, and received death threats because of these activities.

Sasha graduated with a first-class degree in social care from Oxford Brookes University. During her time in Oxford, she was nicknamed “Oxford’s Black Panther”. Sasha has volunteered for food insecurity initiatives. She works in community support and as a youth worker.
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Sasha campaigned for the Oxford Rhodes Must Fall campaign. She participated in the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. In response to a far-right counter-protest with the stated intention of protecting war memorials, Sasha noted that: “We’re painted as thugs when the real thugs are disguised as protecting those memorials. And when they’re drunk, they piss on those memorials.”
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In August 2020, Sasha was an organiser for the Million People March, an anti-racist demonstration in London attended by hundreds of people. In March 2021, Sasha was co-signatory to a statement alleging that police were targeting some Black protesters who participated in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests by name, including by repeated phone calls, to deter them from engaging in Kill the Bill protests.

In summer 2020, Sasha was involved in the founding of the Taking The Initiative Party (TTIP); she serves on its Executive Leadership Committee. The party was registered with the Electoral Commission in 2017. The party supports the decentralised Black Lives Matter movement but is unaffiliated with the specific organisation Black Lives Matter. Though the party considered running for the 2021 London mayoral election (originally scheduled for 2020) under the name “Black Lives Matter for the GLA”, its first candidates for office stood in the May 2021 local elections.

On 23 May 2021, Sasha was shot in the head. The London Metropolitan Police were notified of the incident, in Peckham around 3 a.m. Sasha had previously received numerous death threats for her activism. According to a friend, Sasha was not the intended target of the shooting. Sasha is currently in critical condition and we all need to remember her in our prayers.

Photo Credit: Getty

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