Causes Of The Black Lives Matter Movement

Stephanie Hernandez

World History Accelerated P.2

Mr. Voyda

26 March 2016

Black Lives Matter People of color, such as Black lives have been maltreated and oppressed for centuries. Unarmed black people were killed at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015 (Police). Black Lives Matter is a movement to voice opinions and facts on the oppression and police brutality towards black lives. The movement was created by three black women named, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. The cause for this movement was the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, an African American boy killed by a Florida police officer on February 26, 2012. African Americans lose parts of their lives because of the inequality towards them. We, as a generation

He was shot and killed by a white Florida police officer after feeling like Trayvon was a threat. George Zimmerman, the officer, was acquitted for the murder. The second cause for this movement was the killing of Michael Brown in August of 2014. According to Woodly, “The August killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri proved a tipping point for the mobilization of a movement that had been percolating for at least two years.” Because of this death, social media blew up with shock and coverage of national tv shows had people watching for what would happen next. The third cause for BLM was the ability of police brutality to be looked upon as “doing their job” and the cases of cops tried not guilty. Like George Zimmerman who was acquitted for the murder and Officer Darren Wilson who was not indicted for the killing of Mike Brown, cops are able to get away with murders that are obvious and cruel. The letters of PERSIAN that best describe this paragraph are society and

In social media, Twitter created #BlackLivesMatter, a hashtag created to talk about what was happening with the movement and the ability to speak out with opinions. Many national tv shows broadcasted many news stories about protests and people got a view of the feelings towards the inequality. “And, indeed, people did care. The coverage of the national cable networks was uneasy, yet attentive, with both CNN and Fox News reporting upticks in their ratings over the two weeks that followed the initial uprising on August 9th.” (Woodly). The second effect to this movement was millions of black people were scared and unable to process this. They were afraid that walking on the streets as a black male or female would get them killed. People were cautious of their choices because whatever choice they made could end up with an officer shooting them to