Figure 6.6 An interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi [YouTube Video]. As you watch this 15:56 minute video please pay attention to how the Collurs, Garza, and Tometti talk about movement building and organizing for change. Which of the four stages of social movements do you think the BLM Movement was at when this was recorded in 2016?

The two impassioned Facebook posts that launched #BlackLivesMatter have been called “love letters that launched a movement (Jennings 2020”. BLM is an example of the power of social media to create and shape social movements. Here we will look at how social media was engaged at each of the four stages described in the previous section, emergence, coalescence, institutionalization and decline.

6.5.1 Emergence

Figure 6.7 “Rally for Trayvon Martin 24” (CC BY 2.0) by Ryan Vaarsi

A hashtag (#) placed in front of a word or phrase makes it searchable across media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Hashtag activism is the act of building up public support via social media for a cause. When Patrisse Cullors answered Alicia Garza’s declaration with #BlackLivesMatter the message resonated deeply as part of an overwhelming outpouring of collective grief and anger on social media. Between July and December of 2013, the hashtag was used 5,106 times. By 2016 Twitter reported that #BlackLivesMatter was the third most popular hashtag in the platforms’ 10-year history, with nearly 1,200,000 “tweets” (Sichynsky 2016).

Patrisse Cullors and Aliza Garza were already seasoned and well-networked organizers with experience using social media, as was Ayo Tometi who responded to the posts with plans to purchase the domain, blacklivesmatter.com. Together, they deftly used social media to amplify voices of over-policed, under-resourced communities of people who are black, as they declared to one another, “We matter.” and to Americans, “Stop killing us.” Ayo Tometi, an organizer with with a background in communications, responded by purchasing www.blacklivesmatter.com, where they linked to organizing resources and articulated the following principles:

• We are expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front.
• We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.
• We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.
• We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.
• The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation. (Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi 2016)

6.5.2 How Race and Racism are Socially Constructed

6.5.3 Coalescence

At the next stage, the coalescence stage, social media is also transformative. Over the next year these seasoned organizers skillfully leveraged social media to build legitimacy for their claims.

The most popular hashtag on Twitter in its first decade was #Ferguson, with 1.7 million tweets between 1014 and 2016 (Anderson 2018). Ferguson, Missouri is where the Black Lives Matter coalesced as a global movement. When Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in rage and grief over the killing of Micheal Brown, Patrisse Cullors and Darnell L. Moore used social media to call for a “Freedom Ride” to Ferguson. Inspired by the activists who mobilized for Black lives during the Civil Rights Era, this Freedom Ride would focus national attention on this most recent example of state sanctioned violence against Black lives. The plan successfully mobilized the #BlackLivesMatter Social network to gather in St Louis for three days of solidarity with local organizers, including, Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE). Their goal was to build a sustainable coalition around the following demands:

• Justice for the family of Michael Brown and other victims of law enforcement and vigilante violence
• The demilitarization of law enforcement
• National investment in jobs, housing and schools in Black communities (Mosendz 2014).

Use of #BlackLivesMatter was so prevalent during the Ferguson demonstrations that organizers asked Twitter users to stop using it unless directly related to the actual activities and information about the demonstrations.

Since Ferguson, #BlackLivesMatter has been the goto search term for antiracist organizing. On Dec. 4, 2014, after a New York grand jury declined to to indict police officers in the death of Eric Garner, #BlackLivesMatter appeared 189,210 times – the most it was ever used in a single day. On the first anniversary of Garners’ death, the hashtag appeared more than 228,000 times in two days. When Senator Bernie Sanders defended the Black Lives Matter movement the hashtag appeared more than 127,000 times on Twitter the following day as many users voiced support for Sanders (Anderson 2016).

Social media users report changing their minds about Black Lives Matter and issues related to race and policing because of their interactions on social media platforms. Between Ferguson and Minneapolis the world had a conversation on social media about what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter, (Yes, all lives matter, but we have to be specific because racism – see fig 6.8.)

Social media helped #BLM to break through decades of color-blind racism and helped people feel OK saying that Black Lives Matter (Jennings 2020) . Between 2014 and 2020, police in the United States killed at least 7680 people, though only 12 % of the population are Black, 25% of the dead people were Black (Haddad 2021). Every time another Black life ended, the message got out again. More people engaged in the emerging network. By the time George Floyd’s murder went viral, it was like a match was struck, as around the world 7 years of organizing exploded into the streets.

6.5.4 Institutionalization

Social media can also accelerate a movement towards the institutionalization stage. In some cases, like #BlackLivesMatter, one or more formal organizations might exist alongside the hashtag or general sentiment.

BLM’s originally operated with a decentralized leadership structure and relied on fiscal sponsorship from a larger non-profit for financial oversight. The stated intention was always to distribute funds to local chapters who were are well positioned to respond to the needs of local communities. This infrastructure was temporarily overwhelmed after receiving 90 million dollars in donations during 2020. Social media coverage during this period included accusations of misuse and misappropriation of funds, and the organization came under scrutiny for a lack of transparency.

 The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation responded to these growing pains by reorganizing and creating a Transparency Center on the website with updates on a new board of directors and links to tax filings. Their most recent disclosures list 42 million dollars in assets, and reports distributing more than 26 million dollars in grants to local BLM chapters and directly to families of victims of police violence in 2021 (Morrison 2022).

6.5.5 Decline

The Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century was undoubtedly one of the most successful social movements in history, yet in spite of the notable gains, the movement eventually lost momentum when the most visible leadership and supporters, including Malcolm X. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, while more radical organizers, like Angela Davis, Fred Hampton and Assata Shakur were criminalized.

The same technology that connects us with robust networks, also brings increased surveillance. The inclusiveness and transparency of social networking also makes it easier for opponents to troll, interrupt and sabotage events and campaigns. Additionally reactionary authoritarian movements have also relied on social media to build powerful platforms from which they can deploy misinformation communication campaigns.

The decentralized leadership structure of the BLM movement and other contemporary social movements seems to have provided a bulwark against this sort of decapitation. When Garza, Tomati and Cullors were targeted with misinformation and disinformation, the movement itself did not falter, and distributed leadership allowed the movement to thrive while the original organizers continued to develop new projects in their quest for a world that values black lives.

As of this writing, in 2022, The original website is now maintained by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, with current updates about the status of their ongoing work for racial justice and liberation. They also provide a link where people can report disinformation related to BLM. #BlackLivesMatter still trends regularly to signify racial injustice. By all appearances the decline of the Movement for Black Lives is in no way imminent.