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. They created the hashtag, which spread like wildfire.
“This isn’t the beginning of a movement, this is the continuation of a struggle that’s been happening for at least 400 years,” said Garza, 34, who works as the special projects director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Cullors, 31, director of Dignity and Power Now, an organization focused on helping incarcerated people and their families “went off” when she found out about Zimmerman’s acquittal.
“I was hopeful — and probably naïve — that Zimmerman was going to be convicted and when he wasn’t convicted I sort of went ballistic,” said Cullors. “And this generation goes ballistic in public, on social media.”
Garza wrote the words Black Lives Matter on social media, and Cullors followed with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Later that day, they decided to start a movement, on the streets and online.
Tometi, 30, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, an organization focused on Black and Latino immigrant rights, joined them. She built the movement’s social media presence, helping to engage and connect people.
Read more via MadameNoire.