From social media post to global movement.

Black Lives Matter

(credit photo by Yousef al Nasser)

Slogans uttered by tens of thousands of people around the world, Black Lives Matter has sparked hashtags, networks of grassroots organizations, and moral activist groups.

But how did it go from social media posts to global phenomena, and where does it go now?

The names most associated with Black Lives Matter are not its leaders but the victims who drew attention to the massive racial issues in the country with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, to name a few. The movement was traced back to 2013, following the release of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The 17-year-old returned from a shop after buying candy and iced tea. Zimmerman claimed the unarmed black teenager looked suspicious. There was outrage when he was found not guilty of murder, and a Facebook post titled "Black Lives Matter" captured the mood and sparked action.

"Seven years ago, we were called together. 

There were about 30 of us standing in the courtyard of this Los Angeles black artist community, called by Patrisse Cullors, one of our founders and one of our dear friends," said Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan African Studies in Los Angeles and co-founder of one of the first "chapters" of Black Lives Matters.

"Those are students ... artists, organizers, and mothers. We know that it is part of our sacred duty to step forward. And there is the courage we can change the world, but we have no plans for that," he laughed. If the demand for justice for Trayvon Martin ignites a spark for Black Lives Matter, it was Michael Brown’s death a year later that really brought this movement to national attention.

The unarmed teenager was shot dead by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and Black Lives Matter took to the streets, often in angry confrontations with police. But the assassination of George 

Floyd brought the movement to an unprecedented area. This moment of national reckoning gave 

Ambassador Andrew Young, the legendary civil rights leader, "extraordinary pride". 

"Especially that they remain non-violent," the 88-year-old said. For many years, he walked side by side with the Rev Martin Luther King Jr., but as a civil rights leader of his own right. He was later awarded the US Presidential Freedom Medal and served as US Ambassador to the United Nations. "Of course it was very different then. We had to go from door to door, from church to church," he said. "When Dr. King went to prison, only 55 people showed up," said Ambassador Young.