By now, you have probably heard about Black Lives Matter, the international activism campaign against violence and systemic racism toward the black community that started with a hashtag on Twitter (#BlackLivesMatter). Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi co-founded the Black Lives Matter Movement when George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin.
Though it tends to feel that certain movements spring fully formed onto the pages of newspapers, into the cable news headlines and into Twitter feeds, they all started out as an idea. A thought that originates in a person’s brain, which perhaps then becomes a hashtag, or a T-shirt slogan, and sometimes even an actual call to action.
The name Black Lives Matter signals condemnation of the unjust killings of Black people by police (Black people are far more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people) and the demand that society value the lives and humanity of Black people as much as it values the lives and humanity of white people.
Since 2013 the movement has made the world know that Black Lives matter now, in the past, and in the future, and has made the world realize how intense systematic racism and police brutality is.
BLM activists have held large and influential protests in cities across the United States as well as internationally. A decentralized grassroots movement, Black Lives Matter is led by activists in local chapters who organize their own campaigns and programs, and it all started because of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, three of the most powerful Black Women alive in this day.
Alicia Garza is an organizer, writer and freedom dreamer. She is the special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States. Born in 1981 in Los Angeles, California, she received her Bachlors degree in Anthropology and Sociology in 2002 from the University of California in San Diego. In 2018, Garza founded the Black Futures Lab, which invites black people to experiment with new ways to build independent, progressive black political power. As the Strategy & Partnerships Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Garza worked to build a movement at the intersections of race, gender, and the economy. Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve — to be powerful in every aspect of their lives.
Patrisse Cullors was also born in Los Angeles and also graduated from University of California with a degree in Religion and Philosophy, and then gained a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Southern California.Self-defined as a Marxist and Freedom Fighter, she has been a leader in abolitionist organizing for 20 years and describes herself as an artist, author, educator, and abolitionist working towards “challenging social concepts and reframing our nation’s intercultural dialog – one medium at a time. Along with BLM, she has led multiple progressive organizations based in Los Angeles including Dignity and Power Now, Justice LA, and Reform LA Jails.
Opal Tometi was born in 1984 to Nigern parents who had illegally immigrated to the United States, grew up in Phoenix, Arizonia and is the oldest of three children. She graduated in 2005 from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Masters of Arts in Communication and Advocacy. Tometi considers herself to be a transnational feminist because of her parents’ immigrant status and because she didn’t have anyone to fight for her when she was younger who she could look up to. Since 2011, Tometi has worked for Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). This groups works to improve the lives of African Americans, Afro Latinos, and African and Carbbian Immigrants. She was co-director and communications director where she helped organize the first black-led rally for immigrant justice which took place in Miami, Florida in January 2016. She also organized the first Congressional briefing on black immigrants in Washinton D.C. Tometi is now the Executive Director of BAJI.
No matter what, all three agree; Hashtags don’t start movements — People do.