Biography
Started by community organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African American teen Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based, member-led project whose mission is to build local power and to intervene when violence is inflicted on Black communities. The project is now a global network of more than 40 chapters with no formal hierarchy. Garza, Khan-Cullors and Tometi tell the story of the founding of Black Lives Matter in the video "How a Hashtag Defined a Movement."
To find speeches by Garza, Khan-Cullors, Tometi and others, search for #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM.