Opal Tometi

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Opal Tometi (born August 15, 1984 ) is an American human rights activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter .

Tometi

Life

Tometi is the daughter of illegal immigrants from Nigeria to the USA and has two younger brothers. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona . She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in Communication. During her studies, she volunteered for a project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which documents the handling of illegal immigrants in the USA. Tometi describes himself as queer . She now lives in Brooklyn and conducts domestic violence training courses .

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After completing her studies, Tometi initially worked in public relations and marketing. In 2009, she completed an internship at the organization Witness, which documents human rights violations by immigrants on the border between Arizona and Mexico. From 2011 she worked for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), which aims to improve the living conditions of migrants in the USA. Tometi ran the communications department and was the organization's executive director.

In 2013, along with Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza , she organized Black Lives Matter as a grassroots movement following the death of Trayvon Martin , a black youth who was shot and promoted it on social media. One of her activities was her participation in a forum of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women . In 2015 the Huffpost published her text "Black Future Month - Examining The Current State Of Black Lives And Envisioning Where We Go From Here". In it, she agreed to the demands of the historian Carter G. Woodson , who founded Black History Month , but at the same time stressed that exclusive commemoration of African American history must be supplemented by future-oriented activities.

Awards

Together with Cullors and Garza, she received the "Women of the Year" award from Glamor magazine in 2016 . In 2016, Clarkson University awarded her an honorary doctorate. Tometi, Cullors and Garza received a 2019 literary award from the Oakland- based branch of PEN International for their text "When They Call You A Terrorist - A Black Lives Matter Memoir".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laurie Collier Hillstrom: Black Lives Matter - From a Moment to a Movement, 2018, p. 121
  2. ↑ Spring 2017, Opal Tometti'05: Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter, by Lori Harwood, Kara Aquilano Forney, In: arizonaalumni.com (English)
  3. ↑ Carrie Buist, Emily Lenning: Queer Criminology, 2016, p 47
  4. ↑ Portrait on blackpast.org. In: Blackpast.org. Retrieved June 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Scott H. Ainsworth Ph.D., Brian M. Harward (Eds.): Political Groups, Parties, and Organizations that Shaped America, 2019, p. 188
  6. ↑ "We have to define security ourselves", September 2015, Interview with Opal Tometi (#BlackLivesMatter), In: zeitschrift-luxemburg.de
  7. ↑ Opal Tometi, In: awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu (English)
  8. ↑ Pero G. Dagbovie: Reclaiming the Black Past - The Use and Misuse of African American History in the Twenty-First Century, 2018, p 70
  9. ^ Mary Beard: Women & Power - A Manifesto, 2017, p. 88
  10. ↑ PEN Oakland Awards & Winners, 2019, In: pen-oakland.org (English)
personal data
SURNAME Tometi, opal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American activist
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1984