Who Is Black Lives Matter?

Who Is?

On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. On July 13, 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the case of Martin’s death. In response to Zimmerman’s acquittal, Alicia Garza, an Oakland-based organizer, wrote a post on Facebook which contained the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” A friend, Patrisse Cullors, hashtagged it: #blacklivesmatter. Eight years later, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, tens of millions of Americans poured into the streets, in outrage and grief, to demand that this never happen again. Nationwide protests in support of racial justice continue, and, tragically, so do police shootings of Black Americans: from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Los Angeles, California. On this episode of “Who Is?,” a look at how Black Lives Matter has grown into a movement.

• Keisha N. Blain, a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, and president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is the author of “Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom”
• Miski Noor, a writer and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Noor is a co-founder of Black Visions Collective
• Vince Warren, director of the Center for Constitutional Rights

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