Influential Women During BLM Movement!

Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi:

In 2013, three women created the black centered movement project called #BlackLivesMatter. They started the project as a response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. Shortly after they started the movement, it gained recognition and became a global network of more than 40 chapters! The Black Lives Matter movement has become a worldwide movement that has brought so much change for the black community.

In 2018, Black Lives Matter Global Network activists from the state of California and a consortium of BLM activists from across the country, gathered at the San Diego border to demand just and humane treatment of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United States. This is an ongoing movement that fights for change while making a global impact! Check out https://blacklivesmatter.com/global-actions/ to learn more about the Black Lives Matter movement!

Teens Taking on Action:

• Zee Thomas: A 15-year-old girl took a leading action in a Nashville protest only two days after George Floyd’s death. Although Mrs. Thomas has never been to a protest before, she was able to successfully organize a protest with only five days of planning with a couple of other teenagers. Over 10,000 people attended the protest, and it is a great example of teen representation in our community.

• Tiana Day: A 17-year-old girl was scrolling through Instagram when she found a white woman (Mima Zoila, 19) looking for someone in the black community to lead a protest. The protest would take place across the Golden Gate Bridge and was a peaceful protest, so Mrs. Day reached out and sent Mrs. Zoila a message. Although Mrs. Day thought only 50 people would show up, there were thousands of people. The protest stretched for miles!

• Brianna Chandler: A19-year-old girl living with her parents in St. Louis while on a break from college. She uses her social media platform to teach high-schoolers and middle-schoolers about social justice. Due to COVID-19, she took action online in educating youth as she believed, “educating youth is essential to movement building”.

Marcia Chatelain:

Marcia Chatelain was a woman from Ferguson (where the Black Lives Matter movement started). She is the creator of #FergusonSyllabus which is a crowdsourced material that helps teachers in Ferguson discuss and educate race in their classrooms. As a black woman in America, she has participated in many protests, student-led actions, and social media campaigns. She strives to educate her students about racism as well as contribute to the movement by informing her peers.

She mainly focuses her work on women affected by racism and police brutality, although it mainly occurs to men of color. She also hopes to learn , educate, and share her opinions regarding the future of Black Lives Matter. To read more about her interview, click here.

Sources:

• https://blacklivesmatter.com/global-actions/

• https://www.thefemword.world/the-word/influential-women-in-the-blm-movement

• https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/style/teen-girls-black-lives-matter-activism.html

• https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/women-black-lives-matter-interview-marcia-chatelain