Time March 16–23, 20202013
Patrisse Cullors, Alicia
Garza and Opal Tometi
The founders of Black Lives Matter
In July 2013, when George Zimmerman
was acquitted of fatally shooting
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black
teenager, activist Alicia Garza posted on
Facebook, ending with: “black people.
I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.”
Garza’s friend Patrisse Cullors added the
hashtag, and #BlackLivesMatter went
viral. Amid outrage, the three words
became a rallying cry for thousands
around the world protesting violence
and systemic racism against black
people. Today, thanks to the movement’s
founders— Garza, Cullors and Opal
Tometi—it has grown into one of the
most influential social-justice groups
in the world. With more than a dozen
chapters and affiliates in major cities,
Black Lives Matter has provided a
model for other movements, including
#NeverAgain, a student-led coalition for
gun control, founded after the deadly
school shooting in Parkland, Fla. While
critics called Garza, Cullors and Tometi
terrorists and threats to America, the
activists continued urging the public
to pay attention to the spate of fatal
shootings of unarmed black men and
women that followed Martin’s, shutting
down highways, blocking bridges and
staging die-in demonstrations. “We will
continue to fight like hell,” Cullors wrote
on the group’s website, “because we
deserve more.” —Melissa Chan
KNOWLES-CARTER
PERFORMS AT
THE 2014 MTV
VIDEO MUSIC
AWARDS2010s2014 | REWRITING THE RULESBEYONCÉKNOWLES-CARTER
BY BRITTNEY COOPERWhen beyoncé KnoWles-carTer debuTed as a mem-
ber of Destiny’s Child in the ’90s, no one could foresee that
she would one day be the self-proclaimed “King Bey,” as big
as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson or Prince. By the time she
released her first solo album in 2003, her star power was
clear, but in the music industry, shooting stars often fizzle.
Virgos, astrologers tell us, are perfectionists, and Knowles-
Carter, born in September 1981, treated each album like
an opportunity to build. Her work ethic is rivaled only by
her supreme ability to keep us out of her business. When
she dropped her eponymous fifth album near midnight
in December 2013, with no indication it was coming, her
legend status was clear. Beyoncé was a visual album with
sick beats and her signature girl-power anthems. But with
“Flawless,” she went a step further, sampling a Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie speech and explicitly claiming feminism for
herself. Black feminists were beside themselves, with both
excitement and disdain. Could a pop star really be down
with smashing the patriarchy? Her performance in front of
the word FeminisT at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards
was a helluva way to punctuate a point.
A few years later, her explosive “Formation” let us know
she was back, pro-black and unapologetic. The Lemonade
album’s overtures to Black Lives Matter insisted she may be
pop, but she is also political. It was a hat tip to her haters and
a nod to her serious critics. She’s a woman of few words, but
she’s listening. It’s this call-and-response between Beyoncé,
the Bey-hivers and the Bey-haters that makes her a singu-
lar performer. Haters may hate, but she just gets better.Cooper is the author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist
Discovers Her Superpower(^92) BLACK LIVES MATTER: BEN BAKER—REDUX; KNOWLES-CARTER: KEVIN WINTER—GETTY IMAGES FOR MTV