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METRO
NOVEMBER 18-24, 2020
NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER
Artists to receive $500 if artwork selected for Pitt’s BLM exhibit
DR. KATHY HUMPHREY, center, is Pitt’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Engagement. She is leading the charge on this initiative. (Photo by Aimee Obidzinski/University of Pittsburgh) BLM EXHIBIT FROM A1
those who follow. “Black Lives Matter” is a movement that began in July 2013 by three Black women—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. The organizers said it was created in response to the acquittal
of George Zimmerman, a self-described community vigilante who shot an unarmed 17-year-old Black teen, Trayvon Martin, in Florida in 2012. Black Lives Matter “is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the
face of deadly oppression,” as said on BLM’s official website. The Black Lives Matter movement gained steady traction through the deaths of Mike Brown, a Black man shot and killed by a White Missouri police officer in 2014, Philando Castile, a Black man fatally shot by a Minnesota police officer in 2016, and Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood by a White father-and-son
To submit artwork... Call 412-648-7860 Email: c4c@pitt.edu or visit diversity.pitt.edu duo earlier this year. But earlier this year on May 25, “Black Lives Matter” became the rallying cry across the world when a White Minneapolis police officer killed a Black man, George Floyd, by placing his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes—the encounter captured on video. In cities throughout America and the world, there were protests and marches to decry racial injustice and support the Black Lives Matter movement. Sports leagues like the NBA and Major League Baseball participated in protest by canceling games; the mostly-Black NBA players even contemplated canceling the remainder of its playoffs. Statues of men and women who had pushed a racist agenda or participated in racist actions were torn down, such as Christopher Columbus, in Columbus, Ohio. Christopher Columbus’ name had “become increasingly linked not to a legacy of exploration and discovery, but to the violent colonization that followed his arrival in the Americas and the catastrophic effect it has had on existing civilizations,” read a note in a story on
National Public Radio’s website from July. “Black Lives Matter” was plastered across NBA basketball courts, NFL stadiums, and on streets of cities like Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New York, and Portland. Black Lives Matter murals were painted pretty much everywhere you could imagine in various cities. In Pittsburgh, the words “Black Lives Matter” were painted along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail along the Allegheny River, Downtown. A “Black Lives Matter” Pittsburgh contingent was founded online by Tanisha Long. Pittsburgh saw its share of protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement, the vast majority of them peaceful.
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