Black Lives Matter, a
global political movement. Founded in 2013 by organizers Alicia Garza,
Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the #Black Lives Matter movement (the
hash tag was dropped after 2014) was inspired by the acquittals of several
police officers involved in shootings of unarmed African-Americans,
culminating in the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon
Martin. Beginning primarily as an online platform and organizing tool, the
movement became involved in physical protest following the murder of Mike
Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. That Labor Day, Cullors and
Darnell Moore organized the Black Lives Matter Ride, bringing 600 people to
the region. Following the protests in Ferguson, 18 local branches were
opened across the country, and the movement’s leadership began work
on “an adaptive and decentralized” set of guiding principles
under the name of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, to encourage new
Black leaders and establish a network for Black empowerment. The release of
the video of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, in
Minneapolis—showing a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck
while Floyd called out “I can’t
breathe”—underscored the growing body of evidence of the
differential treatment of Blacks in the hands of law enforcement and the
criminal justice system, galvanizing a large portion of the population. The
movement reached its greatest physical impact on June 6, 2020, when half a
million protesters gathered in 550 location across the U.S. Unlike past
racial protests, Black and people of color protesters were joined by a large
contingent of white marchers, a testimony to the organization’s
increased legitimacy in American culture. The movement has sought to expand
its reach beyond what it calls “heterosexual, cisgender men”
to include women, queer, trans, and other marginalized people under its
umbrella. The organization has branches in the US, UK, and Canada.
See K-Y Taylor, From #Blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation (2016); C. J.
Lebron, The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an
Idea (2018), B. Ramsey, Making All Black Lives Matter:
Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century (2018), P.
Kahn-Cullors with A. Bandele, When They Call You a Terrorist: A
Black Lives Matter Memoir (2020).
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