{"id":4049,"date":"2015-09-18T19:36:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T23:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/22\/black-lives-matter-leader-recounts-groups-beginnings\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T15:01:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T20:01:46","slug":"black-lives-matter-leader-recounts-groups-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/black-lives-matter-leader-recounts-groups-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Lives Matter leader recounts group’s beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blm\"<\/a>In the age of technology, having a voice and a message on social media could be just the tools a person needs to start a movement.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular movements today is Black Lives Matter, a movement that has been fueled by stories of police brutality, violence against African-Americans and hate crimes. The movement\u2019s leaders have used social media and #BlackLivesMatter to grow and galvanize supporters.<\/p>\n

On September 15, the founder of the Black Lives Matter international movement, Alicia Garza, delivered a lecture to a group of about 100 Furman students and faculty members gathered in Watkins Room. She spoke about the roots of the Black Lives Matter group and the importance of its message and reach. The presentation was sponsored by the Furman Chapter of the NAACP and Encouraging Respect of Sexualities (EROS).<\/p>\n

Garza said Black Lives Matter began as a \u201clove letter\u201d addressed to the black community. Garza described her reason for writing the letter after hearing that George Zimmerman had been acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to say,\u201d said Garza. \u201cBecause what words are appropriate when an adult kills a child armed with Skittles and an iced tea\u2026I was somewhere in between rage and grief. So I turned to social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, once on social media, Garza didn\u2019t find the reactions she had hoped for. \u201cThe reactions were \u2018Why are we surprised\u2019\u2026and let\u2019s better educate our children.\u201d Neither of which satisfied Garza\u2019s desire for change. So she decided to write a love letter to the black community, telling them that their lives matter.<\/p>\n

That letter launched the notion and phrase black lives matter. Her friends and co-founders Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi turned into a hashtag.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t start a movement,\u201d said Garza. \u201cWe started a network. We used social media to connect people online who resonated with the message \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 so that they could take action offline.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Michael Brown\u2019s shooting in 2014, Black Lives Matter fueled protests in Ferguson, Missouri. \u201cPeople were just fed up,\u201d Garza said \u201cand wanted to do something about it\u2026 [we came up with] an idea whose time had come with a basic demand, stop killing us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently the group has come under fire for disrupting commerce in malls and restaurants and for disrupting political rallies.<\/p>\n

In closing, Garza used a parable to describe the current conditions of the black community \u201cUntil the lion has its own historian, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. We\u2019re working to change that.\u201d Garza further encouraged the attendees to get organized and involved in matters they\u2019re passionate about \u201cThe power of people together is vital for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo from Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most popular movements today is Black Lives Matter, a movement that has been fueled by stories of police brutality, violence against African-Americans and hate crimes.\u00a0On September 15, the founder of the Black Lives Matter international movement, Alicia Garza, delivered a lecture to a group of about 100 Furman students and faculty members about the roots of the Black Lives Matter group and the importance of its message and reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":15338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,70,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}