Rest in power

Idiomatic expression; variant of "rest in peace"

For other uses, see Rest in Power (disambiguation).

A protester holding a sign reading "rest in power" outside of the Hennepin County Government Center during the 2021 trial of Derek Chauvin

Rest in power (a variation on rest in peace) is an expression used to mourn, remember or celebrate a deceased person, especially someone who is thought to have struggled against systemic prejudice such as homophobia, transphobia, racism or suffered because of it, particularly in black and LGBTQ communities in the United States.[1] It has been used to eulogize victims of hate crimes while protesting the social inequality and institutionalised discrimination that may have led to their deaths. It is a common phrase to use to honor someone's legacy, though as an activist.

As a leftist alternative in opposition to the traditional Christian phrase "rest in peace", "rest in power" suggests that even in death the deceased person has the power to make a difference to others. The phrase is a statement of solidarity and a call to continue the struggle for social justice, as the deceased person will not be able to 'rest in peace' until society itself is in peace. However, it also implies the hope that the deceased person can now rest, free from oppression.

## History

[edit]

An early example of the phrase "rest in power" was published in an LA Weekly article about Latino gangs in East L.A., "Going up L.A." by Rubén Martínez, on 13 April 1989.[2]

Etymologist Barry Popik traced one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase to a newsgroup post on February 18, 2000, which paid tribute to Oakland, California graffiti artist Mike 'Dream' Francisco, who had been shot and killed during an armed robbery. Dream's graffiti art was political in tone, and his pieces often critiqued the United States government's treatment of poor and marginalized people.[3] The post to alt.graffiti, by a contributor identified only as "SPANK", ended with the words "REST IN POWER PLAYA".[4]

By the mid-2000s, the phrase began to appear in print, again linked to young people's premature, violent deaths. In March 2003, under the headline "Rest In Power, Rachel Corrie", In These Times eulogised the death of activist Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza.[5] In a 2005 opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, Meredith Maran reflected on 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck, a Dartmouth College scholarship student who was home in Berkeley for the summer when she was shot and killed by an unknown assailant outside her apartment. Writing of the makeshift public altar set up to mourn Willis-Starbuck, Maran wrote, "I've never seen 'Rest in Power' written as a substitute for 'Rest in Peace.'"[6]

A September 29, 2005, article in the Ottawa Citizen, a Canadian newspaper, described a public graffiti memorial for teenage Ottawa murder victim Jennifer Teague that portrayed "a smiling Ms. Teague beneath the words, 'Rest in power'" and framed by "two black angels."[7]

## Protesting transphobia

[edit]

"Rest in power" has since become widely used when mourning the deaths of trans people,[8][9] and is a rallying cry on the Transgender Day of Remembrance,[10] observed each year on November 20.[11]

## Black Lives Matter

[edit]

The parents of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African-American who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in 2012, wrote a 2017 nonfiction book titled Rest in Power about their son's life and legacy. In 2018 the book was adapted into a six-part television documentary series titled Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story.

But it was the deaths of two more African-Americans in the summer of 2014 – Michael Brown, who was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, who was choked to death by police in New York City – that galvanised the broader visibility of "Rest in power", along with other phrases that had previously circulated in vernacular usage in minority communities and among activists, such as "Black lives matter" and "stay woke".[12][13]

In the song 'Rest in Power', the official theme for the 2018 documentary series of the same name, Black Thought raps: "To them it's real, sins of the father remembered still / For every Trayvon Martin, there was an Emmett Till".[14]

## Wider usage

[edit]

"Rest in power" is sometimes used outside the context of activist social media to mark the deaths of respected public figures who leave strong legacies, even if they are not known for their political activism. Some internet users used the phrase to commemorate the assassination of Jo Cox, a British MP killed by a far-right gunman.[15] After the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, some commentators used the phrase.[16]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "What does rest in power mean?". Dictionary.com. March 4, 2020. Archived from the original on March 30, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
2. ^ Martínez, Rubén (April 13, 1989). "Going up in L.A." LA Weekly. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
3. ^ Taylor, Tara (May 1, 2014). "Remembering Dream Francisco". Alameda Magazine. Archived from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
4. ^ Hampton, Rachelle (September 30, 2019). "How "Rest in Power" Went From Radical Eulogy to Kitschy Twitter Meme". Slate. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
5. ^ Parrish, Geov (March 21, 2003). "Rest In Power Rachel Corrie (1979-2003)". In These Times. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
6. ^ Maran, Meredith (July 21, 2005). "Gun Violence Tragedy in Berkeley / Meleia, in memoriam". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
7. ^ Popik, Barry (May 31, 2019). "Rest in Power (RIP)". BarryPopik.com. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
8. ^ Sosin, Kate (June 10, 2019). "Murders of black transgender women in Dallas raise fears in LGBTQ community". NBC News. Retrieved April 3, 2020. "Blogger Monica Roberts writes a variation of the same headline over and over again. 'Number 3- Rest in Power and Peace Muhlaysia Booker.'"
9. ^ "Stop Trans Murders". National LGBTQ Task Force. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
10. ^ McGranachan, Emily (November 20, 2015). "November 20th Is Transgender Day of Remembrance". Amnesty International US. Retrieved April 3, 2020. "As trans rights activist and writer Joanna Cifredo told Amnesty activists at our Mid-Atlantic Conference in November 2014, 'One voice shouting doesn't make a whole lot of noise. But a whole group shouting makes a difference.' Join us; raise your voice! Rest in power."
11. ^ Ennis, Dawn (November 20, 2019). "The Transgender Day of Remembrance: So Much Loss, So Much to Keep Fighting For". Daily Beast. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
12. ^ Hampton, Rachelle (September 30, 2019). "How "Rest in Power" Went From Radical Eulogy to Kitschy Twitter Meme". Slate. Retrieved April 3, 2020. "What is indisputable at this point is that the nationwide unrest that exploded in the aftermath of the six hours that Brown's body lay on the hot Missouri pavement catapulted phrases like black lives matter, rest in power, and stay woke to a national stage."
13. ^ "What does woke mean?". Dictionary.com. June 29, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2020. "Especially under the hashtag '#staywoke' on social media, woke took off in 2014 with the Black Lives Matter movement, ignited by the tragic shooting of two other young, unarmed black men by police officers. Among activists, woke and stay woke were cries not just to be aware of racial injustice, but to organize and mobilize to do something about it."
14. ^ Madden, Sidney (July 24, 2018). "Black Thought Pays Tribute To Trayvon Martin And Calls For Change". NPR. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
15. ^ Parry, Katy (2019). "#MoreInCommon: Collective Mourning Practices on Twitter and the Iconization of Jo Cox". Visual Political Communication. Springer International Publishing. pp. 227–245. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18729-3_12. ISBN 978-3-030-18728-6.
16. ^ Coghill, Arianna (September 14, 2022). "People are telling the queen to "rest in power." Let's not do that". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 16, 2024.

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Black Lives Matter

People|

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Events|

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2020s|

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Locations|

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Deaths protested|

| 2009–2011|

* Oscar Grant
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|

2012–2013|

* Ramarley Graham
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2014|

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2015|

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2016|

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* Korryn Gaines
* Jamarion Robinson
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* Elijah Doughty
* Terence Crutcher
* Keith Lamont Scott
* Alfred Olango
* Deborah Danner

2017|

* Jocques Clemmons
* Jordan Edwards
* Edson Da Costa
* Rashan Charles
* Patrick Harmon

2018|

* Anthony Weber
* Stephon Clark
* Marcus-David Peters
* Antwon Rose Jr.
* Markeis McGlockton
* Daniel Hambrick
* Botham Jean
* Tamla Horsford
* Jemel Roberson
* EJ Bradford Jr.

2019|

* George Robinson
* Willie McCoy
* Danquirs Franklin
* Javier Ambler
* Lassana Cisse
* Ronald Greene
* Pamela Turner
* Layleen Polanco
* Shukri Abdi
* Christopher Kapessa
* Elijah McClain
* Atatiana Jefferson

2020|

* Alvin Cole
* Ahmaud Arbery
* Manuel Ellis
* Breonna Taylor
* Daniel Prude
* Nina Pop
* George Floyd
* Dion Johnson
* Tony McDade
* Regis Korchinski-Paquet
* James Scurlock
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* Rayshard Brooks
* Julian Lewis
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* Walter Wallace
* Andre Hill
* Dolal Idd

2021|

* Marvin Scott
* Adam Toledo
* Daunte Wright
* Lindani Myeni
* Ma'Khia Bryant
* Andrew Brown Jr.
* Winston Boogie Smith
* Leneal Frazier

2022|

* Amir Locke
* Patrick Lyoya
* Jayland Walker
* Donovan Lewis

2023|

* Keenan Anderson
* Tyre Nichols
* Irvo Otieno
* Jordan Neely
* Ricky Cobb II
* Johnny Hollman
* Ta'Kiya Young
* Leonard Cure

2024|

* Dexter Reed
* Roger Fortson
* Sonya Massey

Other cases
protested|

* Kalief Browder
* 2015 Texas pool party incident
* Shooting of Charles Kinsey
* Shooting of Jacob Blake
* Shooting of Ralph Yarl
* Rankin County torture incident

In popular culture|

| Art|

* New York City
* Bust of George Floyd
* Portland, Oregon
* George Floyd mural
* We Stand with You
* Say Their Names
* Statue of George Floyd

| Street murals|

* Cincinnati
* Indianapolis
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* Salt Lake City
* Santa Cruz, California
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* City Hall
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|

Books|

* All American Boys
* Black Software
* Blackout
* Brit(ish)
* Dear Martin
* The Hate U Give
* His Name Is George Floyd
* I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street
* Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin

Film|

* 16 Shots
* 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets
* American Son
* Bars4Justice
* Fruitvale Station
* Generation Revolution
* The Hate U Give
* Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
* Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement
* Stranger Fruit
* Two Distant Strangers
* Whose Streets?

Music|

* "Alright"
* "Angel Down"
* "The Bigger Picture"
* "Black Parade"
* "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate"
* "Chains"
* "Cop vs. Phone Girl"
* "Don't Shoot"
* "Formation"
* "Freedom"
* "Hell You Talmbout"
* "I Can't Breathe"
* "Lavender (Nightfall Remix)"
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* The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed
* "Snow on tha Bluff"
* "This Is America"
* "What They'll Say About Us"
* "White Privilege II"

Other|

* Colin in Black & White
* 8:46
* "Holding a Black Lives Matter Sign in America's Most Racist Town"
* Our Lady of Ferguson
* Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge
* Woke (TV series)

Activist groups|

* 8 to Abolition
* Assata's Daughters
* Black Feminist Future
* Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation
* Black Visions Collective
* BlackinChem
* BYP100
* Campaign Zero
* Don't Shoot Portland
* Millennial Activists United
* Mothers of Gynecology Movement
* Mothers of the Movement
* Movement for Black Lives
* Peoples Power Assemblies
* #SayHerName
* Stop Cop City
* Street Riders NYC
* Taking the Initiative Party
* Wall of Moms
* White Coats for Black Lives

Proposed
legislation|

* BREATHE Act
* Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm
* Ending Qualified Immunity Act
* George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
* George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act
* Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act
* List of police reforms related to the George Floyd protests

Groups associated
with opposition|

* All Lives Matter
* Alt-right
* Black Guns Matter
* Blue Lives Matter
* Patriot Front
* Russian disinformation campaigns
* Trump administration
* United Citizens' Alarm
* White Lives Matter

Related|

* 2020 deployment of federal forces in the United States
* 2020–2023 United States racial unrest
* list of incidents
* Black Lives Matter Plaza
* Black maternal mortality in the United States
* Criminal stereotype of African Americans
* Defund the police
* Driving while black
* Running while Black
* shopping while black
* Ferguson effect
* George Floyd Square
* Hands up, don't shoot
* I can't breathe
* National anthem protests
* Native Lives Matter
* No justice, no peace
* Police abolition movement
* 2021 Minneapolis Question 2
* Police accountability
* blue wall of silence
* gypsy cops
* police perjury
* qualified immunity
* Police brutality
* militarization
* pain compliance
* use of deadly force
* use of torture
* Police misconduct
* false arrest
* racial profiling
* ticket quota
* Racial bias in criminal news
* Rest in power
* Save the Boards
* Taking the knee
* Terry stop
* The talk
* Woke

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