We all know what the BLM movement is today, but where where did it come from? Read more in this articles.
Edited by Samantha Liu
On the night of February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking the streets of Sanford, Florida when he was spotted by neighborhood watch, George Zimmerman. In Zimmerman's eyes, it seemed as if Martin had drugs in his bag due to how "suspiciously" he walked around the neighborhood. Martin was startled when Zimmerman approached him without any warning. With no further conversation, seconds later, Martin was shot to the ground only to be found with a pack of skittles, a can of iced tea, and no drugs in his backpack. This incident marked the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. In July of 2013, three black women, Alicia Garza (39), Patrisse Cullors (36), and Opal Tometi (36), created the Black Lives Matter movement after the consistent police brutality on black people. These three women were inspired to start this movement only 17 months after the death of Trayvon Martin. Garza, Cullors, and Tometi utilized Martin's death to reflect and garner worldwide awareness of the tragic and brutal murders of black men by white police officers. The first appearance of the BlackLivesMatter hashtag was in an Instagram post made by one of the founders, Alicia Garza, shortly after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin. Immediately after the incident, the movement gained traction. Thousands of activists began to lead protests in their cities, rousing thousands of marchers and helping to get the #BLM message across. Despite the mass demonstrations after Trayvon Martin's death, plenty of other innocent black people were killed from police brutality and acts of racism. Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Megan Hockaday, and many more names joined this saddening, long list of black lives unjustifiably taken every day. One of the most significant turning points for the Black Lives Matter movement, four years after Trayvon Martin, was in July 2016 after the killing of another innocent 32-year-old black man, Philando Castile. Castile was shot by officer Jeronimo Yanez (28) during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The officer's testimony stated that "he had no choice" and followed with "I thought he had a gun in his hand." However, after examining the video evidence released shortly after the incident, it was clear that Castile had no ill intentions and tried his best to comply with the officer. Besides the apparent negligence that resulted in his murder, activists' question still to this day is, "Why was Philando Castile pulled over in the first place?". Castile was pulled over due to his resemblance to a suspect in an armed robbery that had taken place nearly four days after earlier. Yanez's reasons for arresting Castile were unjust, but so were his methods in handling the situation. Yanez had no justification as to why he killed Castile besides his racial prejudices, which drove him to believe that he would get shot. Not only did this attack anger Castile's family, but millions of people across the globe. Soon after the fatal shooting, footage recorded by Philando Castile's girlfriend and dashcam footage was released for the public to see. The deadly shooting was shortly followed by thousands of protests all over the states, mainly in Minnesota. After the deaths of Freddie Gray and Philando Castile and everyone in between, the movement went silent for quite a long time. However, recently, in 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement had a tremendous resurgence due to the recent death of a 46-year-old black male, George Floyd, when police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Since the incident, The Black Lives Matter organization has grown internationally and exists as a decentralized network with about sixteen chapters in the United States and Canada. The movement moved abroad, totaling hundreds of thousands of protests in over sixty countries and every continent. From a social media post to a global movement, the movement expresses how many people are now standing in solidarity to fight against social injustices. Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/justice/florida-teen-shooting-details/index.html https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40357355 https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/ https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/ https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/us/philando-castile-shooting-dashcam/index.html
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