How Black Lives Matter went from a hashtag to a global rallying cry

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/26/us/black-lives-matter-explainer-trnd/index.html

(CNN)It began as a love letter to Black people in the wake of an unexpected verdict.

It was July 2013 and George Zimmerman was on trial for murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black boy who had been walking in his father's Florida neighborhood. The night the verdict was set to be announced, Alicia Garza and some friends gathered for drinks.

None of them thought Zimmerman would be acquitted on all charges. But that's what happened. And Garza felt like she'd been punched in the gut, she told MSNBC.

That night Garza woke up in the middle of the night crying. So she began writing out how she felt, in an emotional Facebook post. She wrote that she continued to be surprised "at how little Black lives matter."

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