The Faces of The Movement
The three founders of #BlackLivesMatter are all women.
#BlackLivesMatter, the “collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement”, was founded in 2013 after Trayvon Martin, a young Black seventeen-year-old, was murdered by a man who walked free.
Their mission aims to abolish white supremacy and intervene in violence against Black communities. As many of us learn of the movement for the first time, it is important to learn about the movement and its origins, including the three powerhouses on the frontline.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an artist, organizer, educator, and public speaker with 20 years of experience in criminal justice reform. She is an Associate Professor at Prescott College and teaches in the Masters program for Social Justice and Community Organizing Program. One of her focuses inclueds the role of art in community organizing. Her biography explains that she is
“a self-described wife of Harriet Tubman, Patrisse Cullors has always been traveling on the path to freedom. Growing up with several of her loved ones experiencing incarceration and brutality at the hands of the state and coming out as queer at an early age, she has since worked tirelessly promoting law enforcement accountability across the world while focusing on addressing trauma and building on the resilience and health of the communities most affected.”
Patrisse came out as queer when she was sixteen years old, and “formed close connections with other young queer woman who were dealing with the challenges of poverty and being Black and Brown in the USA.”
When she was only 22, Patrisse she received a Mario Savio Young Activist Award as well as a Fulbright Scholarship for her organizing work.
Alicia Garza.
Alicia Garza’s biography describes her as “an Oakland-based organizer, writer, public speaker and freedom dreamer who is currently 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. Garza, along with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, also co-founded the Black Lives Matter network, a globally recognized organizing project that focuses on combating anti-Black state-sanctioned violence and the oppression of all Black people.
Most important, as a queer Black woman, Garza’s leadership and work challenge the misconception that only cisgender Black men encounter violence. While the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown were catalysts for the emergence of the BLM movement, Garza is clear: In order to truly understand how devastating and widespread this type of violence is in Black America, we must view this epidemic through of a lens of race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Garza has also been influential in media, with features in “Time, Mic, The Guardian, Elle.com, Essence, Democracy Now!, and The New York Times.”
Yesterday, she instituted a “takeover” of Selena Gomez’s Instagram account, where she posted a video sharing a message about violence against Black people in America.
She has received many awards and recognitions that include being named on “The Root’s 2016 list of 100 African American achievers and influencers, the 2016 Glamour Women of the Year Award, the 2016 Marie Claire New Guard Award, and as a Community Change Agent at the 2016 BET’s Black Girls Rock Awards.”
“We are all worthy of the celebration and defense of our inherent human dignity, and our rights.”
-Opal Tometi
Opal Tometi describes herself as a Nigerian-American, not African-American.
She is a “human rights advocate, strategist and writer of Nigerian-American descent. She has been active in social movements for nearly 20 years, and is widely known for her role as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and for her years of service as the Executive Director of the United States first national immigrant rights organization for people of African descent — the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).”
Her parents migrated to Pheonix, Arizona from Nigeria. Although Tometi grew up in the U.S., her parents were undocumented and were deported when she was in her middle school years. Eventually, they were able to return and become U.S. citizens, but the experience left a deep impact on her. Her background informs her work not only as a Black person in America, but a first generation American with Nigerian roots, an identity that she was able to explore when she had a chance to visit Nigeria. Tometi is an experienced community organizer as well as a consultant. She advises and supports organizations such as Africans Rising, The Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and The Black Lives Matter Global Network.
Tometi’s unique work and experiences include analysis of immigration as well as “raw insights into the adversity inflicted by social injustice” and “anti-black bias.” She also writes a blog exploring these issues.
We hope to do some justice to the work and recognition of these women. You can learn more about #BlackLivesMatter on their website and truly, anywhere on social media.
