Black Lives Matter
Trayvon Martin
17-year old Florida Black man who was killed in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain. The Florida police decline to indict Zimmerman based for 6 months on "Stand Your Ground" laws, when eventually prosecuted due to public attention, Zimmerman was acquitted.
Tamir Rice
Born 2002 Was playing with toy airsoft gun in playground November 2014, Cleveland police officer shot and killed him. He was 12 years old
Eric Garner
He died in Staten Island, New York City, after a New York City Police officer put him in a headlock or chokehold for about 15 to 19 seconds while arresting him.
Black Lives Matter Movement
In 2013, three female Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter began with a social media hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin back in 2012. The movement grew nationally in 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.
Emmett Till
Murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. his death led to the American Civil Rights movement. His mother insisted on an open casket and when the funeral was televised, people in the north became more aware of how bad the hate crimes were in the south.
Breonna Taylor
26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment on March 13, 2020, when white officers forced entry into the apartment
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
Church that was bombed by the KKK in 1963, killing 4 teenage girls
George Floyd
George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African-American man who was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on May 25, 2020. This event resulted in worldwide protests.