Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a social activist movement and organization devoted to stopping violence and injustice against Black people. Though initially focused on the United States, it established a presence in other countries as well. The group was founded in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who had been charged with murdering Black teen Trayvon Martin. Over the next few years, the Black Lives Matter movement swelled in popularity, particularly after several incidents of police brutality involving Black Americans made national news. Its protests against systemic racism became a prominent factor in the 2016 US presidential election campaign. The movement saw another surge in attention with mass protests in 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in Minnesota. However, the group's high profile has been accompanied by controversy, with some critics accusing it of being racist, anti-police, or accepting of violence.

Origin of the Group

The Black Lives Matter movement began forming in July 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman. In 2012, Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watchman in the city of Sanford, Florida, shot and killed unarmed seventeen-year-old Black American Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman claimed he shot Martin in self-defense after Martin attacked him.

Zimmerman ultimately was acquitted of second-degree murder in the summer of 2013. In response to the verdict, Black people across the United States erupted in angry protests, claiming their government did not care about seeking justice for Black Americans.

The Zimmerman verdict greatly upset Alicia Garza, a Black American woman who had heard the news in an Oakland, California, bar. She later claimed that she and the other Black Americans in the bar felt simultaneously saddened and infuriated. To them, the acquittal of Martin’s killer confirmed that racism and White supremacy were still real threats to Black people in the United States.

Moved by the event, Garza wrote an extended Facebook post detailing her feelings about the place of Black people in the contemporary United States. She concluded the message by telling Black Americans she loved them and that their lives mattered.

Garza’s friend Patrisse Cullors, a community organizer, was inspired by Garza’s post and began sharing the message with others online. Every time Cullors reposted Garza’s message on social media sites, she used the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Garza and Cullors then began discussing how they could create a national activist campaign for their convictions about the continued mistreatment of Black Americans by White American society.

Garza and Cullors joined with immigrant rights activist Opal Tometi to begin taking their message online. Using social media websites such as Tumblr and Twitter, the women requested that users across the United States use the hashtag #blacklivesmatter to share their own views on why Black lives matter in twenty-first-century America.

Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement began. Initially, the organization consisted only of Garza, Cullors, and Tometi. Garza started making Black Lives Matter protest signs for display in storefront windows while Cullors led a protest march in Beverly Hills, California, holding a sign bearing the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Although these efforts brought Black Lives Matter some degree of attention, the movement did not gain a large and enthusiastic national audience until 2014. As it grew, the movement consciously resisted establishing a hierarchical leadership structure, preferring to function as a loose network of grassroots organizers and activists joined by the overarching goal of equality for Black Americans.

Rise to Prominence

Black Lives Matter quickly became known throughout the United States in mid-2014 following its responses to several cases of alleged police brutality involving Black victims.

The first incident was the killing of forty-three-year-old Eric Garner by White police officer Daniel Pantaleo in Staten Island in July 2014. Garner died of asphyxiation after Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold while arresting him for selling cigarettes. Many Black people and others in New York and across the United States reacted angrily to Garner’s death. Their protests of police brutality included signs reading "Black lives matter," indicating that awareness of the movement had spread to New York. Protesters invoked the phrase again in December 2014, when a grand jury chose not to indict Pantaleo for killing Garner.

The Black Lives Matter movement earned even greater national exposure in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, after the shooting death of Michael Brown, a Black man, by police officer Darren Wilson. Much was made in the media about the fact that the eighteen-year-old Brown had been unarmed when Wilson shot and killed him. The Black population of Ferguson broke out in riots, with some looting stores and engaging in anti-police violence, in the days after Brown’s death. Seeing the chaos on television, Garza, Cullors, and Tometi traveled to Ferguson under the #blacklivesmatter banner. They arrived to find many protesters already holding "Black lives matter" signs.

In the wake of the Ferguson riots, more than five hundred people in eighteen cities across the United States joined the Black Lives Matter initiative. They called for equality for Black people in society, education, employment, and the justice system. Over the next several months, following several more incidents of police violence against Black Americans, the #blacklivesmatter logo became more popular than ever. It began appearing on all manner of merchandise, and the phrase itself was even employed by politician Hillary Clinton in a December 2014 speech on human rights. In January 2015, the American Dialect Society named the hashtag #blacklivesmatter its word of the year.

By mid-2015, nearly thirty Black Lives Matter chapters had formed throughout the United States. Around this time, activists from the movement began soliciting attention from the candidates running for president in the 2016 election. In July 2015, for example, members of the organization interrupted an event featuring Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. The activists took control of the stage and spoke briefly about Black inequality in the United States. The next month, Black Lives Matter activists interrupted an event at which Sanders was speaking. The individuals again spoke of racism and racial inequality in America. Clinton, then the Democratic frontrunner for the presidential nomination, held a dedicated meeting with Black Lives Matter representatives in October 2015 to further discuss her policies regarding criminal justice and Black communities; much of this discussion helped to shape her subsequent criminal justice platform in her campaign. In recognition of their activist efforts, Time magazine included the Black Lives Matter movement on its short list for person of the year in 2015.

In July 2016 the movement drew criticism when, during a Black Lives Matter march in the streets of Dallas protesting police shootings of two Black men in Minnesota and Louisiana, a sniper shot and killed five police officers. In an interview after the incident and the takedown of the perpetrator, the Dallas police chief claimed that the sniper had indicated that the Black Lives Matter cause had upset him, and other commentators suggested that the rhetoric of the movement had inspired him to take the violent measure. Representatives for Black Lives Matter, however, insisted that the movement and its chapters did not condone violence. While protesters took to the streets once more within days following the shootings, activists worried that their message would be overwhelmed by doubt and criticism surrounding the killings of the officers.

In 2016, several professional athletes began protesting the national anthem played at sporting events, a move widely seen as in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and related movements. Among the highest profile cases was National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt for the anthem and subsequently accused NFL teams of colluding to keep him out of the league for his views. In 2017 protests by NFL players and others expanded, drawing heavy media coverage and considerable controversy, including criticism from President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter continued to demonstrate in protest of other instances of violence against people of color.

2020 Resurgence

Black Lives Matter's advocacy for radical reforms saw renewed attention following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020. According to reports, George Floyd died after becoming unconscious as a White police officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, held him down by kneeling on his neck for several minutes. A bystander's video of the incident was released online, stoking public outrage. Although all the officers involved were soon fired and later charged, protests and demonstrations were immediately held throughout the country. Some protests were directly organized and led by Black Lives Matter itself, while others made use of the group's slogan.

Another name taken up by many demonstrators was that of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who had been shot eight times during a police raid on her apartment in March 2020. (A lawsuit by Taylor's family eventually resulted in a $12 million settlement, and several of the officers involved in the raid were dismissed, though not charged with Taylor's death.) Activism efforts further stressed the importance of valuing and advocating in national discussions for the lives of Black women specifically, including through the #SayHerName campaign, which had emerged in 2014.

In the wake of the Floyd and Taylor killings, many Black Lives Matter activists, including Cullors, emphasized the view that substantive policy moves such as the defunding of law enforcement and a focus on investing in Black communities were needed to effect real change. Though some police officers walked or knelt alongside protesters to show solidarity, many activists suggested such actions were not enough. In other cases, police were criticized for using force, including rubber bullets and tear gas, against protesters. Meanwhile, supporters of the movement also pointed out that the impact of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that had begun earlier that year highlighted additional racial inequity in areas such as health care and housing. The mass protests against systemic racism soon spread to many other countries around the world as well.

National and international focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and its messages concerning racial injustice remained strong throughout 2020. Other incidents of police violence against people of color, including the shooting of Jacob Blake in August, drove additional major protests. As demonstrations peaked that summer, experts suggested Black Lives Matter may have become the largest movement in US history, with estimated participation in protests ranging from 15 to 26 million people. Murals and other artwork supporting the movement became iconic, although in some cases they attracted considerable controversy, including in cases of disapproval by local officials or vandalism. The heightened attention to Black Lives Matter also brought renewed debate over the fate of controversial older monuments, particularly statues commemorating the Confederacy, that some activists considered racially offensive due to connotations of slavery and racial inequality. The movement itself also continued to evolve; for example, some commentators called for greater inclusion of Black people who are part of the LGBTQ community, who often experienced even higher risk of discriminatory violence.

Many political observers credited the Black Lives Matter movement with helping to motivate liberal voters in the 2020 presidential election. Black voters in particular were seen as a crucial force in securing the Democratic Party nomination for Joe Biden, and then in helping him win the general election by flipping several states that had supported Trump in 2016. As part of the effort to more directly impact political action, in October 2020 the national movement had officially established the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee.

In January 2021 it was announced that Black Lives Matter had received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, indicating its considerable social influence. However, the movement also faced a number of challenges in 2021. Legislators in a number of states pushed for laws designed to impose harsher penalties related to protesting. Critics of such laws, including Black Lives Matter supporters, argued this effort was attempting to take advantage of the nationwide furor inspired by a riotous assault on the US Capitol building by Trump supporters that January to clamp down on social justice protests. Media reports also related apparent internal struggles expressed by local chapters within the larger Black Lives Matter movement. After concerns regarding accountability and transparency for donated funds and their use were voiced by select chapters late in 2020, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation released an impact report in February 2021. As previously planned, Cullors stepped down as executive director of the foundation in late May 2021.

Another incident that drew Black Lives Matter attention was the April 2021 killing of Daunte Wright, a young, unarmed Black man who was pulled over for a traffic stop and was ultimately shot and killed by veteran White police officer Kim Potter. Subsequent protests emphasized the death as evidence of a continuing need for reform. (The police officer who killed Wright was charged with second-degree manslaughter later that month.) The response to this incident was particularly emotionally fraught as it occurred during Officer Chauvin's trial on state murder and manslaughter charges in the George Floyd case. The verdict of Chauvin's guilt on all three counts delivered by the trial's jury on April 20 was seen as a crucial moment by supporters of the movement, but a statement released by the global Black Lives Matter organization emphasized that much more work still needed to be done toward systemic reform to achieve actual justice for Black communities. On the occasion of the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death on May 25, many activists nationwide publicly took note and some held peaceful gatherings, rallies, and marches to further honor Floyd's life and show continued support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Chauvin and the three other officers at the scene were also formally brought up on federal charges of excessive force and failing to intervene or provide medical aid in the case of Floyd's death. In December 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal civil rights charges.

Meanwhile, researchers evaluated the evolving public attitude toward Black Lives Matter. In September 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that while support for the movement had declined from June to September 2020, it had remained about the same over the subsequent year, with 55 percent of US adults claiming at least some support. In contrast, poll results by the survey firm Civiqs released in November 2021 suggested that support for the movement had continued to decline, to about 44 percent of Americans overall, though it remained very high (82 percent) among Black Americans. Meanwhile, several other studies showed that the 2020 protests had been largely peaceful, even compared to the civil rights protests of the 1960s.

The ten-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death in 2022 saw much reflection on the Black Lives Matter movement and its impact from a variety of media outlets and commentators. By that point, many observers considered it to be one of the defining social phenomena of the era. Black Lives Matter was widely credited with successfully raising attention to issues of racial justice and shifting the national discourse around race in general. However, it was also frequently noted that the movement continued to face a significant backlash as it intersected in complex and sometimes controversial ways with virtually every aspect of society. Notably, many conservative leaders across the US continued to characterize Black Lives Matter as a radical, violent group and argued that the movement's focus on identity politics was itself divisive and even racist. The backlash against Black Lives Matter was often linked to conservative efforts to restrict voting rights and censor material they claimed promoted "critical race theory." Such efforts in turn drew sharp criticism from BLM supporters, civil rights activists, and others, indicating how the Black Lives Matter movement was deeply entwined with many of the fundamental sociopolitical divisions in the United States.

All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter

In response to Black Lives Matter, some critics introduced the slogan "all lives matter." However, many Black Lives Matter supporters in turn criticized that movement, suggesting that it misinterpreted the meaning of Black Lives Matter, which did not intend to devalue the lives of those who are not Black but simply to draw attention to a justice system that appears to undervalue the lives of Black Americans. Several other similarly named movements would also develop in response to Black Lives Matter, most prominently the police-focused Blue Lives Matter.

On December 20, 2014, New York City police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were killed while on duty and sitting in their patrol car in the borough of Brooklyn. They were ambushed by a man named Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley. Brinsley allegedly killed Liu and Ramos as revenge for the deaths of two Black men (Eric Garner in New York City in July 2014 and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014) at the hands of police officers and in protest against the lack of indictments brought against those officers. The group Blue Lives Matter was formed shortly after Liu's and Ramos's deaths in response to a perception of anti-police media reports and public protests at the national level and to garner support of police officers, and as an implicit critique of the Black Lives Matter movement. Blue Lives Matter was managed by police officers, both active duty and retired, and in addition to working to bolster and support a positive image of law enforcement officials across the United States, the movement also raised money to help support the families of slain police officers.

In early 2017, several states across the United States introduced legislation that would provide special protection to police officers. One such bill, known as the Blue Lives Matter Act, would consider any attack against a police officer, firefighter, or emergency responder a hate crime, which carries stiffer penalties and longer prison time for convicted individuals.

As widespread protests in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement erupted following Floyd's death in May 2020, Blue Lives Matter rallies and demonstrations meant to support police were also held in some cities, particularly in response to strong calls for police reform or defunding.

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