Meet The Women Who Founded The Black Lives Matter Movement

The 2012 case of Trayvon Martin sparked what we now know as the Black Lives Matter movement.

Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi are the women who founded the movement and were appalled by the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Garza saw the verdict on social media and took to Facebook to share her reaction which was co-signed by Cullors with the hashtag, “BlackLivesMatter.”

Friends for ten years, Cullors, Garza, and Tometi championed for black lives and in 2015 #blacklivesmatter was the word selected by the American Dialect Center.

Garza says the “All Lives Matter” hashtag “effectively neutralizes the fact that its black people who are fighting for their lives right now.” Speaking of protests held throughout the world Tometi says, “I am so in awe of them. They are so brave, and those are the people our country has needed for so long.”