Patrisse Cullors

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Lore & Background

Patrisse Cullors was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother Cherice Foley is a Jehovah's Witness. Her biological father was Gabriel Brignac, whom she did not meet until she was eleven years old. She was raised in the home of Alton Cullors, who used to work at a General Motors plant in Van Nuys before it was shut down. She has three siblings: two brothers named Paul and Monte, and a sister named Jasmine. Gabriel was a repeat offender who was jailed many times on drugs-related charges and died in 2009 in a homeless shelter. Cullors described him as having a constant and caring presence in her life. Her brother Monte was arrested in 1999 after stealing his mother's car. Later he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. Cullors recalled that in a fight with prison officers, he was allegedly choked, beaten up brutally, and was forced to drink toilet water. She has cited this as one of the reasons for her activism. Cullors grew up in a Section 8 apartment in Van Nuys. At the age of 12, she was arrested for smoking marijuana. Cullors recalled being forced from her home at sixteen when she revealed her queer identity to her parents. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, she later grew disillusioned with the church. She developed an interest in the Nigerian religious tradition of Ifá, incorporating its rituals into political protest events. Cullors became an activist early in life, joining the Bus Riders Union (BRU) under the leadership of Eric Mann as a teenager. She attended a year-long organizing program led by the Labor Community Strategy Center. Cullors enrolled at Grover Cleveland High School (now Cleveland Humanities Magnet) in Reseda and was admitted into its social justice magnet program. She went onto acquire a degree in religion and philosophy at UCLA, as well as a MFA from the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California. Along with community organizers and friends Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, Cullors founded Black Lives Matter. The three started the movement out of frustration over George Zimmerman's acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Cullors created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 to corroborate Garza's use of the phrase in making a Facebook post about the Martin case. In May 2021, after holding the position for six years, Cullors resigned from her formal role as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, to focus on her second book and a multi-year TV deal with Warner Bros. She has served as executive director of the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence in L.A. Jails. Cullors co-founded the prison activist organization Dignity and Power Now, which succeeded in advocating for a civilian oversight board.

Reader's Guide

Patrisse Cullors is significant as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, a movement that emerged in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Cullors created the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 to corroborate Alicia Garza's use of the phrase. Cullors and her BLM co-founders set out to build a decentralized movement governed by consensus of a members' collective and in 2015, a network of chapters was formed. Cullors has been the most publicly visible of the co-founders, especially after Garza and Tometi stepped back from regular involvement in the organization. She credits social media being instrumental in revealing violence against African Americans. In 2017, she said that the movement would not meet with United States president Donald Trump just as it would not have met with Adolf Hitler, as Trump 'is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country, be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.' Cullors defines herself as a prison, police and 'militarization' abolitionist. She also favors reparations for what she describes as 'the historical pains and damage caused by European settler colonialism.' She cites black feminists such as Audre Lorde and bell hooks, as well as Angela Davis, Frantz Fanon, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong as inspirations. In a 2015 interview that resurfaced in 2020, Cullors stated that she and co-founder Garza were 'trained Marxists.' Asked whether she believed in violence as a method of protest, she has said that she believes in 'direct action, but nonviolent direct action,' and that this was also the belief of the Black Lives Matter movement. In February 2020, Cullors co-endorsed Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She has been the subject of criticism for her personal spending and handling of Black Lives Matter funding.

Did You Know?

• Cullors created the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 to corroborate Alicia Garza's use of the phrase in a Facebook post about the Trayvon Martin case.
• Her brother Monte was arrested in 1999 and later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder; Cullors cited his brutalization in jail as a reason for her activism.
• Cullors was raised as a Jehovah's Witness but later grew disillusioned with the church and developed an interest in the Nigerian religious tradition of Ifá.
• She acquired a degree in religion and philosophy at UCLA, as well as an MFA from the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California.
• In a 2015 interview that resurfaced in 2020, Cullors stated that she and co-founder Garza were 'trained Marxists.'