The Shakerite VOL 91 ISSUE I

Opal Tometi. They formed the organization in response
to the acquittal of Zimmerman.
According to History.com, Garza was saddened
to observe that many people appeared to blame the
victim, Trayvon Martin, rather than Zimmerman
and his racist actions, for Martin’s death. She posted
a message of comforting words to the Black community
on Facebook on July 13, 2013 that contained
the phrase “Our lives matter.” Garza said she felt “a
deep sense of grief” after Zimmerman was acquitted.
From the phrase, “Our lives matter,” Garza and
her friends Cullors and Tometi created the hashtag
#BlackLivesMatter.
What began as a hashtag has come to define a
new generation of activism. In seven years, Black
Lives Matter, founded to “eradicate white supremacy
and build local power to intervene in violence
inflicted on Black communities,” has become a multichapter
organization that has changed the way in
which the nation talks about race.
Thirty BLM chapters have developed across the
United States since the movement’s start, including
one in Cleveland. According to BLMCle President
and CoFounder LaTonya Goldsby, the chapter was
founded in December 2015, a year after a Cleveland
police officer fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
“BLMCLe is committed to proactive steps to
prevent police brutality through systemic police
reform, investigation, legislation, training, vetting,
transparency and education,” Goldsby wrote in an
email.
The rise of BLM has enabled more frequent and
more meaningful discussions about race.
“The conversation around race didn’t exist in a
vast capacity until we saw the BLM movement, this
surge,” T. Sheri Amour Dickerson, Executive Director
and Core Organizer of BLM Oklahoma City told
NBC News. “Now difficult conversations, honest
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