Origin Story and BLM Today

The Black Lives Matter Movement came about after the death of Trayvon Martin and continued to grow with the death of Michael Brown. 

Both of these young men were black, unarmed, and were shot and killed. Martin was a seventeen year old black man that was visiting his dad in Florida when he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in February of 2012 (Graff 2015). 

Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch captain of a gated community that was tried and found not guilty for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown was a black teenager that was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in August of 2014 (Graff 2015). 

The Black Lives Matter Movement was started in response to these deaths and was intended to be a celebration and humanization of black lives. 

The Black Lives Matter Movement is trying to move the mentality of those in America away from “us versus them” and in doing so truly free black lives from inequality.