Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a social movement and organization that emerged in the United States in 2013. It was founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, three Black women who began using the phrase #BlackLivesMatter as an expression of grief, solidarity, and affirmation following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager from Florida. What began as a hashtag on social media grew into a formal organization and then into a broad global movement. The phrase 'Black Lives Matter' carries a clear and historically rooted meaning: it is an affirmation that the lives of Black people have value and deserve protection — a declaration that has been contested throughout African American history from slavery through the present. The movement grew significantly in 2014 following highly publicized deaths of Black Americans including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York. It expanded dramatically in 2020, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protests spread across the United States and into many countries around the world. Scholars and journalists estimated that 15 to 26 million people participated in U.S. protests in the summer of 2020 — among the largest protest events in American history. BLM chapters have been established in cities across the United States and internationally. The movement operates within a long tradition of African American advocacy for civil rights and equal protection under the law, and it has sparked national and international conversations about policing, racial equity, and the ongoing meaning of justice in American society.