THE PROTESTS
The Black Lives Matter movement was originally founded by three black women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in 2013, as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of a black teen, Trayvon Martin.
On their official website, they describe their intent behind the creation of the hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter: “#BlackLivesMatter is an online forum intended to build connections between Black people and our allies to fight anti-Black racism, to spark dialogue among Black people, and to facilitate the types of connections necessary to encourage social action and engagement.”
In their “Guiding Principles” section of their website read “Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”
On August 9th, 2014, Black Lives Matter members took to the streets in protest for the first time through the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, Missouri. They held a non-violent demonstration for justice at the wake of the eighteen-year-old Michael Brown. More than 500 member from all over the continent descended into Ferguson.
Black Lives Matter was actually one of several organizations protesting in Ferguson, but they rose to prominence through their stellar coordination and the power of their slogan, “Black Lives Matter”.
Black Lives Matter drew inspiration from several prior protests, including the 1960s civil rights movement, the 1980s black feminist/womanist movement, the 1980s anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the 2000s LGBT movement, and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. However, the Ferguson protests differed from previous civil rights movements.
"“Ferguson would mark the arrival on the national stage of a new generation of black political activists – young leaders whose parents and grandparents had been born as recently as the 1970s and 1980s, an era many considered to be post-civil rights… For at least two decades, the days of taking the struggle to the streets had seemed, to many politically active black Americans, a thing of the past.”
- Wesley Lowery, The Guardian
The day after Brown’s death, after Sunday morning church services, hundreds of people, led by local pastors and their congregations, showed up at the spot where Brown was killed. The crowd moved forward, chanting what they believed to be Brown’s final words, “Hands up, don’t shoot!”. They were met by a wall of police officers, and the peaceful demonstration soon became a heated standoff.
Later that night, armed vandals used the raging protests going on nearby to break into a QuikTrip gas station. Before long, the store was on fire.
The next day, it was photos and videos of the gas station ablaze, not the police shooting of Michael Brown, that was attracting national media attention. The enraged response of the black community in Ferguson had drawn the eyes of the nation.
Likely part of what made the Black Lives Matter movement seem so divisive is intentionally engrained in their protesting tactics. The movement seeks to destruct the patriarchy of white male led society, and by doing that, they must reveal the structure of white privilege that courses through American daily life.
Understandably so, this made a lot of people very uncomfortable as they had to either accept their involvement and participation in that society, or outright deny that the American socio-political environment curtailed the lives of Black Americans. Their slogans and phrases that adorned their signs at their protests intentionally sought to make the other side feel uncomfortable with themselves. “I can’t breathe” (a reference to the death of Eric Garner), “White silence is violence”, and “Is my son next?” all were effective examples of how simple signs could make white people feel uneasy.