The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize of 2021.
BLM started in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer in the same year. Martin, who was just 17 at the time of his death, was an unarmed Black man from Florida, US.
Since its launch, BLM has reached supporters across the globe. In fact, their website states that their aim is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”
“By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives,” the mission statement reads.
Protesters held a “Black Lives Matter” banner during a demonstration in Washington, DC last year.
(Photo: Courtesy of CNN).
According to an interview to CBS News, Norwegian lawmaker Petter Eide, who made the nomination, said he believes that BLM is “the largest and strongest social movement in the world today, fighting racial injustice.”
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for his “non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population,” according to the official Nobel Prize website.
The movement continues to fight for racial equality as the world continues to witness racial injustice happening across the globe. Just last month, a widow in Louisiana was denied burial of her late husband at a cemetery due to their “whites only” policy, which has been changed since then.
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