#BlackLivesMatter Begins

A crowd of protestors holding signs reading 'Black Lives Matter' during a demonstration.

What Happened?

The night George Zimmerman was acquitted for killing unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza wrote a post on Facebook: a love letter to Black people. In it, she reminded the world that Black lives matter. Her friend and fellow activist Patrisse Cullors replied with a hashtag—#BlackLivesMatter—that would ignite a movement.

Together with Opal Tometi, they built a decentralized network rooted in grassroots organizing and the belief that Black people deserve dignity, justice, and life. The phrase quickly spread from social media to the streets, capturing a collective demand to stop state-sanctioned violence against Black bodies.

The killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and so many others added fuel to the fire. In cities across the U.S., protests erupted. People marched not only against police brutality, but against a long history of systemic racism, economic inequality, and silence.

By 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, #BlackLivesMatter had become the largest protest movement in U.S. history. More than a hashtag, it became a framework, demanding abolition, repair, investment, and liberation. BLM reshaped conversations about race, power, and justice on a global scale.

Why It Matters

Born from the grief of one family, Black Lives Matter became a global call for justice, accountability, and love. It challenges the foundations of racism while reimagining a world rooted in dignity, equity, and community power.

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Dig Deeper

This video traces the history and impact of the Black Lives Matter movement and how it fits into the long arc of Black resistance in the United States.

Wilmington, 1898, a white supremacist mob burned the Black-owned newspaper, massacred dozens of Black residents, forced out the elected government, and installed their own mayor at gunpoint. It was the only successful coup d’état in U.S. history.

The Wilmington Coup: When Democracy Was Burned Down

In 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina had a thriving Black middle class, a multiracial government — and then a white mob overthrew it. Armed. Organized. Violent. This was no riot. It was a coup.

MLK’s final chapter was about more than civil rights, it was a bold demand for economic justice that challenged the nation’s values at their core.

MLK the Disrupter and the Poor People’s Campaign

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final chapter was about more than civil rights—it was a bold demand for economic justice that challenged the nation’s values at their core.

The Mexican-American War redrew the map of North America, but it also deepened the nation’s divide over slavery, imperialism, and what it meant to be American.

The U.S.-Mexico War

On May 13, 1846, the U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico. Behind the scenes? Land lust, slave politics, and a president with a map in one hand and a match in the other.