Speaking Thursday night at a Philander Smith College's Bless the Mic lecture, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter said the movement extends far beyond the ballot box.
"Voting is important, but unfortunately it's not saving our lives," Alicia Garza said. It was one of many points she made during the lecture in Little Rock, which featured Garza to explain the motivation behind the now-famous movement.
Garza's legacy has left an indelible mark on national dialogues surrounding race.
"[O]ur presence is important, and we matter. Our lives matter, black lives matter," Garza wrote in a Facebook post addressing black communities distraught over George Zimmerman's acquittal in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The phrase began threading through social media landscapes advocating for the overhaul of police-community relations.
The movement reached viral recognition after the four-syllable phrase became a rallying cry in the protests that erupted after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in 2014. The movement continued to gain prominence as the public lashed out against the subsequent deaths of black Americans -- such as Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray -- at the hands of police officers.
Today the organization has 39 chapters around the world -- with a Little Rock chapter in the works -- and its core principals have become talking points in political arenas.
"Hashtags don't start movements," Garza said before the crowd. "Nor can a hashtag spark or ignite a movement, partially because this movement is older than every single last one of us in this room."
"We have already seen that we can change the conversation in this country," she said in closing remarks. "We have demonstrated that we can change lives, we have demonstrated that we can unseat candidates."
Metro on 04/15/2016