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

To learn why, Black Lives Matter sought, under the state’s public records law, the criteria law enforcement weighed to justify stopping residents. —Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 19 Aug. 2025

Black leaders and preachers, like those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, Stacey Abrams and myself, continue the fight for racial equality, using strategies that blend nonviolent resistance with digital platforms to achieve a broader reach. —Kevin A. Slayton Sr, Baltimore Sun, 18 Aug. 2025

The National Guard was last mobilized in DC in 2020 during Black Lives Matter protests. —Andy Rose, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2025

Still others came of age against the backdrop of the defining shocks of this new century: 9/11 and the war on terrorism, Hurricane Katrina, the racial backlash to the election of Barack Obama, and the Black Lives Matter movement. —James M. Thomas, The Conversation, 14 Aug. 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