The history of BLM

 The movement began in July 2013, with the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter on social media, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin 17 months earlier, in February 2012. The movement became nationally known for demonstrations in the streets of Ferguson, New York and Missouri, a city near St. Louis following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans, Michael Brown and Eric Garner.  Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have protested the deaths of many more African Americans caused by police or while in unjust police custody.





The movement returned to national headlines and gained more international attention during the global protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Some 26 million people participated in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest movements in U.S. history. 



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