50 Fun Facts About Black Lives Matter

Whose killing in Sanford, Florida, ended in the July 2013 acquittal that sparked #BlackLivesMatter?

Trayvon Martin was walking back from a convenience store when Zimmerman, the gated community's neighbourhood-watch coordinator, followed him; the 13 July 2013 not-guilty verdict sparked the phrase that became a movement.

In May 2020 a Minneapolis store clerk called police on George Floyd, saying he had paid with what?

A counterfeit $20 bill was the whole basis of the call; the store's owner later said most customers who pass fake notes do not know they are fake.

Which NBA team sat out its 26 August 2020 playoff game against Orlando after police shot Jacob Blake?

The Milwaukee Bucks simply stayed in their locker room before Game 5, and the NBA postponed every game that day and the next before players agreed to resume.

Protesters in which English city toppled slave trader Edward Colston's statue in June 2020?

Bristol fished the statue out of its harbour four days later and now displays it, graffiti and all, in the M Shed museum.

Which sportswear brand's 2018 ad starring Colin Kaepernick read 'Believe in something'?

Nike had quietly kept Kaepernick under contract since 2011; the NFL's own spokesperson responded that his social-justice work 'deserves our attention and action'.

Which state retired its Confederate-emblem flag in 2020 and adopted a magnolia design in January 2021?

Mississippi voters approved the magnolia flag in November 2020 under a law that barred the Confederate emblem and required the words 'In God We Trust'.

What did Donald Trump hold up at St. John's Church on 1 June 2020 after Lafayette Square was cleared?

A Bible was Trump's own idea, reportedly over aides' suggestions, and he posed with it before the church's fire-damaged parish house rather than going inside.

Which mayor had 'Black Lives Matter' painted in 35-foot letters on 16th Street NW in June 2020?

Muriel Bowser unveiled the mural on 5 June 2020 and renamed the two blocks Black Lives Matter Plaza the same day, posting that she had 'turned on the night light' for the president.

Whose 8 June 2020 call led NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its races two days later?

Bubba Wallace, the first Black driver with a full-time Cup Series ride since Wendell Scott in 1971, was racing the No. 43 made famous by Richard Petty.

How many named masks did Naomi Osaka bring to the 2020 US Open, one for every match needed to win it?

Seven masks, seven matches: Osaka used the last one in the final, having walked out for each round wearing the name of a Black American killed in recent years.

Which co-founder's tearful 2013 Facebook post after the Zimmerman verdict gave the movement its name?

Alicia Garza wrote that she was surprised 'at how little Black lives matter'; a friend lifted the phrase and turned it into the hashtag two days later.

Which co-founder created the hashtag in 2013 and wrote the memoir When They Call You a Terrorist?

Patrisse Cullors, a Los Angeles artist raised in a Van Nuys Section 8 apartment, created the hashtag from a friend's Facebook post two days after the verdict.

Which co-founder bought the movement's .com domain and chose its black-and-yellow colours in 2013?

Opal Tometi, the Phoenix-raised daughter of Nigerian immigrants, built the Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter pages too, and has since changed her name to Ayọ Tometi.

Which country's MP Petter Eide nominated Black Lives Matter for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize?

Norway is where the prize is decided: the Norwegian parliament appoints the committee that chooses the laureate, and the award is presented in Oslo.

Which Australian city's Peace Prize, for 'peace with justice', went to Black Lives Matter in May 2017?

The Sydney Peace Prize is funded in part by the City of Sydney council and honours nominees who promote human rights and non-violence alongside justice.

Officer Darren Wilson's shooting of which 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, set off weeks of protest in 2014?

Michael Brown had graduated from Normandy High School; a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson that November, and the Justice Department later found he fired in self-defence.

Five St. Louis Rams players entered a November 2014 game with arms raised, acting out which Ferguson chant?

Hands up, don't shoot grew from early reports that the Ferguson teenager had his hands raised, claims a federal investigation later found unsupported; four Congressional Black Caucus members repeated the gesture in the House.

A 2015 Justice Department report found Ferguson's council relied on what to fund municipal services?

Court fines and fees were Ferguson's second-largest revenue source in 2013, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor later cited the report at length in a Supreme Court dissent.

Notre Dame's women's team wore which phrase on warm-ups on 13 December 2014, days after LeBron James did?

I can't breathe were the last words of a Staten Island man held in a police chokehold that July; President Obama said LeBron 'did the right thing' when critics complained.

Who died in a banned NYPD chokehold in July 2014 during a Staten Island arrest over untaxed cigarettes?

Eric Garner repeated the same three-word plea 11 times while pinned to the pavement, and a bystander's phone video turned his death into a national case.

Which 12-year-old holding an airsoft replica pistol was shot by Cleveland police in November 2014?

Tamir Rice's replica lacked the orange tip meant to mark it as a toy, and the officer fired almost immediately on arriving; a 911 caller had already said the gun was 'probably fake'.

Whose April 2015 death from injuries in a Baltimore police van led the Orioles to play a game with no fans?

Freddie Gray had been arrested for carrying a knife; officers had not strapped him in, breaching a van policy introduced only six days earlier.

A 2017 Texas jail law is named for which woman who died in a Waller County cell after a 2015 traffic stop?

Sandra Bland had been pulled over for failing to signal a lane change; investigators found the jail skipped required cell checks and mental-health training.

Whose 2016 shooting at a Minnesota traffic stop was streamed live on Facebook by his girlfriend in the car?

Philando Castile had been stopped for a broken brake light; Diamond Reynolds's 10-minute stream was viewed 2.5 million times by that afternoon.

DeRay Mckesson co-founded which police-reform platform in 2015, the group behind 2020's '8 Can't Wait'?

Campaign Zero's four founders had launched Mapping Police Violence, a database of 2014 police killings, four months earlier; 8 Can't Wait tracks eight use-of-force policies city by city.

Nate Boyer, who convinced Colin Kaepernick to kneel instead of sit in 2016, served in which Army unit?

The Green Berets veteran suggested kneeling as a more respectful gesture toward veterans, and Kaepernick adopted it from the final preseason game onward, kneeling before every game that season.

Which NFL team, Super Bowl XLVII finalists, was Colin Kaepernick playing for when he first knelt in 2016?

The San Francisco 49ers had reached that Super Bowl, their first since 1994, only after Kaepernick took over as starter mid-season in 2012 from an injured Alex Smith.

Which safety, the first to kneel beside Colin Kaepernick in 2016, later settled his own collusion claim?

Eric Reid, a 2014 Pro Bowler drafted in the first round in 2013, settled with the league in a related case; he had knelt beside Kaepernick from the 2016 preseason.

Which US women's soccer star knelt for the anthem at a 4 September 2016 NWSL match, citing Kaepernick?

Megan Rapinoe knelt again before a US match against Thailand days later, prompting US Soccer to say it expected players to stand.

Colin Kaepernick's 2017 collusion grievance against the NFL's owners was settled confidentially in which year?

The 2019 settlement came after Kaepernick had gone two full seasons unsigned; later that year the NFL staged a hastily arranged Atlanta workout for him that produced no contract.

Colin Kaepernick received which organisation's top honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, in 2018?

Amnesty International created the award in 2003 through its Art for Amnesty arm, and earlier recipients include Nelson Mandela and Václav Havel.

How many Americans did summer 2020 polls estimate had joined the George Floyd protests, a national record?

15 to 26 million people across more than 4,700 demonstrations by the end of June, a daily average of 140, made it the largest protest movement in US history.

How long did many 2020 die-ins last, the time first reported for the officer's restraint of George Floyd?

8 minutes 46 seconds became a moment of silence observed around the world, even though the figure was later revised to more than nine minutes.

Which prize board gave Darnella Frazier, 17 when she filmed George Floyd's arrest, a special citation in 2021?

The Pulitzer board honoured a high-school junior with a job at the mall; her phone video was also credited by Obama's photographer Pete Souza with making the verdict possible.

In March 2021 Minneapolis settled George Floyd's family's wrongful-death lawsuit for how much?

$27 million was agreed on 12 March 2021, in the middle of jury selection for the officer's trial, which his defence argued could taint the jury pool.

Camouflaged federal officers used unmarked vans to detain protesters in which city from 14 July 2020?

Portland, Oregon saw near-continuous protests for a year after George Floyd's death; Governor Kate Brown said the federal deployment 'only serves to escalate tensions'.

In November 2021 Minneapolis voters rejected a measure to replace the city's police force with what?

A Department of Public Safety lost 56% to 44%, 17 months after nine of the 13 council members vowed at a Powderhorn Park rally to dismantle the police department.

Which legal doctrine shielding officers did the 2021 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act seek to restrict?

Qualified immunity limits were one reason the bill, drafted by Karen Bass and Jerrold Nadler, passed the House 220–212 but never cleared the Senate.

Ahmaud Arbery's 2020 killing led which state to pass a hate-crimes law and repeal its citizen's arrest law?

Georgia enacted the hate-crimes law in June 2020 and replaced citizen's arrest in May 2021; Arbery had been chased while jogging near Brunswick, and his three pursuers were convicted of murder that November.

What did Louisville ban on 11 June 2020 with an ordinance named for an ER technician killed in a police raid?

No-knock warrants let officers enter without announcing themselves; Louisville also paid the family $12 million that September, and Kentucky limited the warrants statewide in 2021.

In the year after George Floyd's death nine states made Juneteenth a paid holiday; how many had before 2020?

One state, Texas, gave employees a paid Juneteenth before 2020; New York, Washington and Virginia joined within a year, and the federal holiday followed in June 2021.

Which city removed its 60-foot Robert E. Lee monument, Monument Avenue's first statue, in September 2021?

Richmond's French-made bronze had stood since 1890; Governor Ralph Northam ordered it down in June 2020, but lawsuits held it up until Virginia's Supreme Court ruled in September 2021.

Which shipping company, the Redskins' stadium sponsor since 1999, was pressed by investors in 2020 over the name?

FedEx and two other sponsors received a letter from 87 shareholders and investors urging them to cut ties; the team announced that July it would play as the Washington Football Team.

Protesters in 2020 targeted statues of which Belgian king over atrocities in the Congo Free State?

Leopold II's monuments were targeted as the protests broadened from policing to other forms of systemic racism, alongside statues of Columbus in the United States.

Which F1 driver knelt before every 2020 race and founded a commission with the Royal Academy of Engineering?

Lewis Hamilton's commission, set up in June 2020, looks at why so few Black people work in motorsport engineering; that season he also raced in a black helmet carrying the movement's name and a raised fist.

Which football competition restarted in June 2020 with 'Black Lives Matter' in place of surnames on every shirt?

The Premier League kept the movement's badge on shirts for the rest of that season after the 12 name-swapped matches, and backed any player who chose to take a knee.

What did Instagram users post en masse on 2 June 2020 for #TheShowMustBePaused, a music-industry initiative?

Plain black squares, started by two Atlantic Records executives as #TheShowMustBePaused, ended up burying the protest hashtags activists were using to share live information.

Beyoncé's backing dancers at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show in 2016 were dressed to evoke which 1960s group?

The Black Panther Party look accompanied 'Formation', released only the day before; the dancers also formed an X for Malcolm X, and Rudy Giuliani called the show anti-police.

Which Childish Gambino song was the first rap track to win Record of the Year, at the 61st Grammys?

This Is America swept all four of its Grammy categories, Song of the Year included; its video, released while Gambino hosted Saturday Night Live, was read as a statement on guns and race.

Angie Thomas's 2017 novel The Hate U Give takes its title from which rapper's THUG LIFE acronym?

Tupac Shakur's THUG LIFE concept holds that hate fed to the young rebounds on everyone; Thomas grew the book from a college short story, and it was among the most-challenged books of 2017.