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ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @chasinggarza

By now you have probably heard about Black Lives Matter, the international activist organization campaigning against violence and systemic racism toward the black community. What you may not know is how this integral movement began. After George Zimmerman was acquitted of Trayvon Martin’s murder in July 2013, Opal Tomei, Alicia Garza, and Patrissee Khann Cullors added the comment, “Black Lives Matter” in a Facebook post and the rest was history. Here are some facts about the three women that founded the BLM Movement:

1 Opal Tometi

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @opalayo

Opal Tomei is one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. Based in New York, this Nigerian-American is a triple threat. She is a community organizer, social strategist and writer. Tometi is credited with creating the movement’s online presence and starting their social media strategy #BlackLivesMatter early on in the campaign.

Always fighting for the helpless, Tomei is also a former caseworker for domestic violence survivors. She has a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Masters of Arts degree in Communication and Advocacy. Tometi has also received numerous awards and achievements like the BET Black Girls Rock Community Agent Award and the first ever Social Movement of the Year Award from The Webbys. She was also voted #10 on 2015 Root 100 List and recognized in both the LA Times and ESSENCE magazine as a “New Civil Rights Leader.” More so, Tomei’s social advocacy efforts have crossed international waters. Working with organizations such as the Black Immigration Network (BIN) and the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights .

Where is she now?

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @opalayo

Continuing in the spirit of social justice reform, she is currently the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the country’s leading Black organization working for immigrant rights. Her latest triumph with BAJI was family reunification visas issued to displaced Haitians from the 2010 earthquake.

When speaking about the success of the Black Lives Matter movement, Tometi states, “I’ve been blown away by how courageous we are and how powerful the human will is and to see hundreds and thousands of people mobilize around the globe. The movement is ours. I’m proud of us.”  She lives in Brooklyn and collects African art.

2 Alicia Garza

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @chasinggarza

This Oakland-based social activist is also one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. The birth of the Black Lives Matter movement has made Garza a powerful voice in the media. Her interviews have been have been feature in numerous  publications like ESSENCE, Time, and Elle.com, and The New York Times. She also has been recognized on the 2016 Root 100 List and a BET Black Girls Rock Community Changer alongside her co-founders.

What’s most interesting about Garza are her efforts for total inclusivity when discussing inequality in the Black community. As a queer woman, she aims to bring together all race and gender communities for sake of social justice. According to blacklivesmatter.com, “While the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown were catalysts for the emergence of the BLM movement, Garza is clear: in order to truly understand how devastating and widespread this type of violence is in Black America, we must view this epidemic through of a lens of race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Where is she now?

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @chasinggarza

Garza is currently the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an organization dedicated to being the leading voice for millions of domestic workers seeking fairness and dignity.

In an interview with The Guardian about the up’s and down’s of the cause, Garza clarifies, “That really is our work – to make sure that the movement is everywhere … in hospitals and healthcare, in schools, in our workplaces, in our churches,” she says. “That’s what’s going to really accelerate the pace of the change that we seek.

3 Patrisse Khan-Cullors

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @osopepatrisse

“I identify as an organizer versus an activist because I believe an organizer is the smallest unit that you build your team around. The organizer is the person who gets the press together and who builds new leaders, the person who helps to build and launch campaigns, and is the person who decides what the targets will be and how we’re going to change this world,” says Patrice  Khan-Cullors, the third founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. Her statements ring true when looking her extensive career in social justice reform.

A Los Angeles native, Khan-Cullors is an award-winning freedom fighter, speaker, and artist. She, along with the rest of the BLM team has won the BET Blacks Girl Rock Community Changer award. She is a Fulbright scholar. What’s most interesting about Khan-Cullors is her role as a performing artist. She recently produced RESIST, a docu-series following her efforts to stop a $3.5 billion jail expansion plan.

Where is she now?

ENTITY MAG-BLACK LIVES MATTER

instagram @osopepatrisse

Khan-Cullors just wrapped up her international tour of her New York Times bestseller, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. She is currently leading a ballot initiative through Reform L.A. Jails and founder of Dignity and Power Now.

These women are doing everything that can to make a difference, not only through Black Lives Matter, but through other reform programs with the same agenda-equality.

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