43 Facts About Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people.

Phrase "Black Lives Matter" can refer to a Twitter hashtag, a slogan, a social movement, a political action committee, or a loose confederation of groups advocating for racial justice.

Local Black Lives Matter chapters are asked to commit to the organization's list of guiding principles but operate without a central structure or hierarchy.

Loose structure of Black Lives Matter has contributed to confusion in the press and among activists, as actions or statements from chapters or individuals are sometimes attributed to "Black Lives Matter" as a whole.

Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of more than 50 groups representing the interests of black communities across the United States.

Related searches

Black Lives Matter originally used various social media platforms—including hashtag activism—to reach thousands of people rapidly.

Black Lives Matter protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful; when violence does occur, it is often committed by police or by counter-protesters.

Black Lives Matter acknowledged that he faces such challenges as diversifying the police force, improving community relations, and addressing issues that catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement.

Black Lives Matter protesters are themselves sometimes subject to excessive policing of the kind against which they are demonstrating.

In 2014, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Laquan McDonald, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Antonio Martin, and Jerame Reid, among others.

In Oakland, California, fourteen Black Lives Matter activists were arrested after they stopped a Bay Area Rapid Transit train for more than an hour on Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Black Lives Matter condemned the shooting, though some right-wing media attempted to connect the group to it, with the Patrolman's Benevolent Association president claiming that there was "blood on [the] hands [of] those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protests".

In 2015, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Charley Leundeu Keunang, Tony Robinson, Anthony Hill, Meagan Hockaday, Shooting of Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, William Chapman, Jonathan Sanders, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, Jeremy McDole, Corey Jones, and Jamar Clark as well Dylann Roof's murder of The Charleston Nine.

In 2016, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Bruce Kelley Jr.

The Black Lives Matter network released a statement denouncing the shootings.

Black Lives Matter protested the shooting of Jocques Clemmons which occurred in Nashville, Tennessee on February 10,2017.

Artists with art in the exhibition were invited to discuss their work in the Black Lives Matter show as it was projected at an evening forum in a small amphitheater at VCU's Hibbs Hall.

Black Lives Matter's boyfriend called 911 and said, "someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend".

Black Lives Matter called to "defund the police", a slogan with varying interpretations from police abolition to divestment from police and prisons to reinvestment in social services in communities of color.

The slogan "Black Lives Matter" was translated to "Vidas Negras Importam" in Portuguese.

Black Lives Matter was a featured part of the Take Back the Night event in Toronto.

In June 2016, Black Lives Matter was selected by Pride Toronto as the honored group in that year's Pride parade, during which they staged a sit-in to block the parade from moving forward for approximately half an hour.

In Denmark, an organization named Black Lives Matter Denmark was founded in 2016 by Bwalya Sørensen, a woman from Zambia who came to Denmark when she was 19 years old.

In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Denmark held a demonstration in Copenhagen that attracted 15,000 participants.

Black Lives Matter later died at a police station; the circumstances of his death are unclear.

Related searches

Left-wing Green Party, a member of the Labour-led coalition government, has expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, linking the plight of African Americans to the racism, inequality, and higher incarceration rate experienced by the Maori and Pasifika communities.

Black Lives Matter emerged as a movement in the UK in the summer of 2016.

In December 2019, Black Lives Matter UK worked with the coalition Wretched of the Earth to represent the voices of global indigenous peoples and people of color in the climate justice movement.

Black Lives Matter spray paint was sprayed over his name and the words "was a racist" were sprayed underneath.

At the Netroots Nation Conference in July 2015, dozens of Black Lives Matter activists took over the stage at an event featuring Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders.

Nikki Stephens, the operator of a Facebook page called "Black Lives Matter: Seattle" issued an apology to Sanders' supporters, claiming these actions did not represent her understanding of BLM.

Black Lives Matter was then sent messages by members of the Seattle Chapter which she described as threatening, and was forced to change the name of her group to "Black in Seattle".

In February 2016, two Black Lives Matter activists protested at a private fundraiser for Clinton about statements she made in 1996 in which she referred to young people as "super-predators".

In March 2016, Black Lives Matter helped organize the 2016 Donald Trump Chicago rally protest that forced Trump to cancel the event.

Black Lives Matter articulated that voting alone is not the only way to bring about "transformational change".

President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Black Lives Matter, citing incidents of violence and looting at some Black Lives Matter protests.

Black Lives Matter has used the protests as a means to promote law and order rhetoric and appealed to the grievances of some white people.

Blue Lives Matter is a countermovement in the United States advocating that those who are prosecuted and convicted of killing law enforcement officers should be sentenced under hate crime statutes.

Conservative pundits such as Ryan Fournier and Candace Owens have falsely claimed that ActBlue funnels donations intended for Black Lives Matter to Democratic candidates, with some going so far as to allege the organization is a money laundering scam.

Black Lives Matter was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in January 2021.

Black Lives Matter compared them unfavorably to the civil rights movement leaders, who were "consciously appealing to what we share" instead of emphasizing differences of race and other identities.

Some critics accuse Black Lives Matter of being anti-police and endorsing violence against the police.

Women from within the Black Lives Matter movement, including professor and civil rights advocate Treva B Lindsey, have argued that BLM has sidelined black women's experiences in favor of black men's experiences.