Black Lives Matter

noun

: a movement founded in 2013 to end white supremacy and support Black communities

Note: Black Lives Matter was founded by Black community organizers Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi after George Zimmerman was acquitted of charges relating to his fatal shooting of Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012; the movement expanded as people reacted to police killings of unarmed Black people in years following. The name Black Lives Matter functions as a declaration that Black people's lives have as much value as white people's lives, and as a call to end systems and practices that challenge this fact.

—abbreviation BLM

Examples of Black Lives Matter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That inquiry, run out of the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, focused on spending by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, one of the largest and most well-funded organizations within the broader Black Lives Matter movement. —Arkansas Online, 13 Dec. 2025

Obama’s response was the violent suppression both of Black Lives Matter protestors and primarily of Indigenous Water Protectors, who protested against the expansion of oil pipelines in Standing Rock land in North Dakota. —Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025

The indictment comes after the Associated Press and CBS News reported earlier this year that the Justice Department was investigating whether the national Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation misused donations. —Nolan Clay, USA Today, 12 Dec. 2025

The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. —Sean Murphy, Fortune, 12 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2014, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Black Lives Matter

• antimatter
• atter
• batter
• blatter
• catarrh
• chatter
• clatter
• fatter
• flatter
• hatter
• latter
• natter