A civil rights movement that started after the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Florida shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. The Black Lives Matter movement, also written #BlackLivesMatter, was started as a Twitter hashtag by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi as “a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society,” according to the Black Lives Matter website. It gained momentum in 2014 after several other young African-American men—Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY; Freddie Gray in Baltimore—were killed by police in cities around the country.
According to its website, #BlackLivesMatter does not believe Black lives are more important than other lives. In fact, it says it stands with other oppressed peoples and views all lives as important. The campaign opposes police violence against Black people. While the group says all lives matter, not all lives face the same threats. According to Black Lives Matter, once Black people are free from oppression, the benefits will be wide reaching and transformative to society as a whole.
