About

Black Lives Matter Entities

We recognize that it can be difficult to fully engage in discussions about the Black Lives Matter Global Network because there are multiple entities involved and few if any details have been clarified internally or publically. The organizational entities that BLM operates under and/or partners with has changed several times over the years, without notification. What little we do know, has come from persistent requests for transparency over the years. Formal organizational roles have been inconsistent and salaries, such as those of Patrisse Cullors, contractors and staff, other founders, have never been reported to organizers  of member chapters.

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has taken different organizational forms and used different names over the years. 

The BLM Network 

This was the first “formation” of Black Lives Matter after the Ferguson Rebellion. It was intended to be a Network of chapters that would build an organization with political alignment, clear shared objectives, and shared decision making processes. It would later be known as the BLM Global Network though no information was shared with the majority of chapters about what the official or legal name was and when or how it changed.

Local Chapters 

• Chapters were created by organizers in cities all over the country, not by the BLMGN.

• Website August 2020 

https://web.archive.org/web/20200829124011/https:/blacklivesmatter.com/chapters/

• Website February 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200204041342/https:/blacklivesmatter.com/chapters/

• Lack of infrastructure and little funding support from the Black Lives Matter Global Network negatively impacted chapters’ capacity to support families who have lost loved ones in our cities.

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation

The BLM Global Network Foundation was a new organizational formation beginning in 2020 first as a fiscally sponsored project of Thousand Currents, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that had served as BLMGN’s sponsor since 2016. Fiscal sponsorship was transferred to Tides in 2020. Chapters were told that Patrisse Cullors was the sole board member. No details about the legal incorporation or current Board members have been provided.

#BLM10

BLM10 includes the chapters that have united to publicly demand accountability after continued internal calls of accountability were unmet by the BLM Global Network Foundation. The initial statement can be found here, and subsequent articles and interviews explaining what has happened can be found here (Politico, The Economist, I Mix What I Like interview with Dr. Jared Ball, Yahoo Finance, Insider ).

BLM PAC

Patrisse Cullors is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee and was announced in October of 2020. There was never an internal conversation around the formation of this entity.  BLM members were informed when it was announced to the public. We have no knowledge of the PAC, who it represents, what funds were used to create it, or why it was created. Patrisse is also Senior Advisor to Real Justice PAC, co-founded by Shaun King and Michael Kieschnick.

Grassroots 

The chapters working on an accountability process discovered that a small faction of chapters were meeting privately to build and launch Grassroots, which effectively ended that process. Individual members from various chapters decided what BLM Grassroots would be without knowledge or consent from the general collective of chapters. 

Strategy Table (ST)

The Strategy Table was composed of five regional chapter representatives from the South, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and Canada. The members applied in January 2017 and were selected by the organizing staff to help guide the Network to clarity on our strategic direction. However ongoing infrastructure issues and a lack of clarity of roles hampered the work. The role of staff was never clarified. Many local leaders felt that staff should support their work and carry out their ideas because they were paid. Others, including most of the staff, felt that they were local leaders who had agreed to also take on some staff roles and thus should have equal say in strategy. This tension was increased by Patrisse’s hesitance to give a clear answer on the role of staff or delegate answering that question to another body.

Eventually it was decided that the body was to also help vet external movement requests, provide additional support to chapters developing campaigns and strategies, and hold the organizing team accountable to our work priorities. Over nine months, the Strategy Table developed a proposed process that clarified how Network-wide strategic decisions about political alignment and structure. The ST rolled the proposal out to chapters to vote on. However the lack of clarity of the role staff early on had created tensions between staff and some local leaders. This meant that many local leaders simply refused to respond to staff inquiries and often went behind the strategy table to complain about staff. As these issues were being resolved the staff was all let go by Patrisse without much of a process. This left the strategy table without the capacity to organize a final vote on the process.   

The Transition Team (TT) 

BLMGN the TT was created to fill the space left by the Strategy Table. In August of 2018 representatives of some of the chapters attended a convening in Long Beach, CA. Staff had to push to make sure there were more chapters represented in that space than had originally been invited despite intense opposition. The conveing was held to address conflicts and some of the same issues detailed by BLM10Plus. Makani Themba and adrienne marie brown were mediators in that space. Patrisse Cullors announced her transition from BLMGN and that she was destaffing the network during the convening. When asked why, she gave a vague answer about there not being enough money to continue paying staff. 

Once it became clear Patrisse would be transitioning out of BLMGN the TT proceeded to work to create a new structure. Makani and adrienne continued as the Transition Team facilitators into 2019. Three working groups emerged and built a plan for democratic representation and governance. Once the TT requested funding to support Chairs to implement the new structure it became clear that BLMGN power would not be concentrated in the West as it had been, and the process was completely derailed.