Black Lives Matter
More Than Just a Hashtag; A Movement
What is Black Lives Matter?
" Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based national organization working for the validity of Black life." - Black Lives Matter Website
"#BlackLivesMatter is an online forum intended to build connections between Black people and our allies to fight anti-Black racism, to spark dialogue among Black people, and to facilitate the types of connections necessary to encourage social action and engagement." - Black Lives Matter Website
"Black Lives Matter is a network; it is one entity amongst many. We've got Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders, we've got Power U in Miami. There's a million organizations that are black-led and concerned with the conditions of black people. - Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter Co-Founder
How It All Began
The Founders
Alicia Garza
Based in Oakland, California, Alicia Garza is an activist and writer. Her work has been published in The Gaurdian, The Nation, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, and more. Along with her work for Black Lives Matter, she currently serves as the Special Project Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliances.
Opal Tometi
Opal Tometi is a Nigerian-American organizer, activist, and writer, based in New York. In recognition for her work with the Black Lives Matter, she recieved an honorary doctorate degree from Clarkson University. She is also the Executive Direction for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).
Patrisse Cullors
Patrisse Cullors is an activist, organizer, and artist, from Los Angeles, California. She's a Fulbright scholar, and has recieved numerous awards for her work, including being named a Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century by the Los Angeles Times, and a NAACP History Maker.
Guiding Principles
DIVERSITY: We are committed to acknowledging, respecting and celebrating difference(s) and commonalities.
GLOBALISM: We see ourselves as part of the global Black family and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black folk who exist in different parts of the world
BLACK WOMEN: We are committed to building a Black women affirming space free from sexism, misogyny, and male‐centeredness.
BLACK VILLAGES: We are committed to disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, and especially “our” children to the degree that mothers, parents and children are comfortable.
LOVING ENGAGEMENT: We are committed to embodying and practicing justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE We are committed to collectively, lovingly and courageously working vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension all people. As we forge our path, we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting.
COLLECTIVE VALUE: We are guided by the fact all Black lives, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status or location.
Guiding Principles
EMPATHY: We are committed to practicing empathy; we engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.
QUEER AFFIRMING: We are committed to fostering a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking or, rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual unless s/he or they disclose otherwise.
UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK: We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we need not qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a necessary prerequisite for wanting the same for others.
TRANSGENDER AFFIRMING: We are committed to embracing and making space for trans brothers and sisters to participate and lead. We are committed to being self-reflexive and doing the work required to dismantle cis-gender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
BLACK FAMILIES: We are committed to making our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We are committed to dismantling the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” that require them to mother in private even as they participate in justice work.
INTERGENRATIONAL: We are committed to fostering an intergenerational and communal network free from ageism. We believe that all people, regardless of age, shows up with capacity to lead and learn.
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