A 2017 report from Black Lives Matter describes its founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi, as "Three radical Black organizers." The women espouse Marxism and openly push radical identity politics.
The BLM website is operated under an umbrella group known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, chaired by Cullors, who said she and Garza are "Trained organizers" and "Trained Marxists" during a 2015 interview with the Real News Network, noting: "We actually do have an ideological frame. We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories, and I think what we really try to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk."
"We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken," Black Lives Matter said.
Beyond their Black Lives Matter work, Cullors calls herself the "Self-described wife of Harriet Tubman" and works on radical Los Angeles jail reform, while Tometi also spent years as executive director of the leftist Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Black Lives Matter appears to make up the majority of the donation work that Thousand Currents does, with the 2019 public audit statement for the latter group showing just over $6.4 million in total financial assets, including holding more than $3.3 million in assets for Black Lives Matter as of the end of last June.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has pulled in huge amounts of cash since Floyd's death, telling the Associated Press that it had received more than 1.1 million individual donations as of mid-June, with each donor giving an average of $33 per donation - meaning the group brought in more than $33 million in less than a month.
Distinguishing Black Lives Matter the group from the growing sentiment in favor of racial justice driving the phrase's popularity is a necessary first step in repeating that history.
The BLM website is operated under an umbrella group known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, chaired by Cullors, who said she and Garza are "Trained organizers" and "Trained Marxists" during a 2015 interview with the Real News Network, noting: "We actually do have an ideological frame. We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories, and I think what we really try to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk."
"We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken," Black Lives Matter said.
Beyond their Black Lives Matter work, Cullors calls herself the "Self-described wife of Harriet Tubman" and works on radical Los Angeles jail reform, while Tometi also spent years as executive director of the leftist Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Black Lives Matter appears to make up the majority of the donation work that Thousand Currents does, with the 2019 public audit statement for the latter group showing just over $6.4 million in total financial assets, including holding more than $3.3 million in assets for Black Lives Matter as of the end of last June.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has pulled in huge amounts of cash since Floyd's death, telling the Associated Press that it had received more than 1.1 million individual donations as of mid-June, with each donor giving an average of $33 per donation - meaning the group brought in more than $33 million in less than a month.
Distinguishing Black Lives Matter the group from the growing sentiment in favor of racial justice driving the phrase's popularity is a necessary first step in repeating that history.
