Black Lives Matter receives Nobel Peace Prize nomination
‘People are waking up to our global call,’ Black Lives Matter tweeted
Black Lives Matter has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness about racial injustice.
Petter Eide, a Norwegian member of parliament, told USA Today on Saturday that he nominated Black Lives Matter because it is “bringing forward a new consciousness and awareness about racial justice.”
“To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia,” Eide said. “They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.”
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Founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter was seen as the answer to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
The organization would continue to gain attention and become a rallying cry following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014.
The 2020 deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor ignited a global Black Lives Matter movement in support of Black Americans and the issue of police brutality.
“We hold the largest social movement in global history. Today, we have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Black Lives Matter tweeted on Friday. “People are waking up to our global call: for racial justice and an end to economic injustice, environmental racism, and white supremacy. We’re only getting started,”
In 1964, the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his prominent role in the civil rights movement. Albert Lutuli was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his “non-violent struggle against apartheid” and Nelson Mandela in 1993 for his “work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”
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Eide said that the organization carrys the legacy of previous racial justice movements and those previous honorees.
“For the Nobel Prize Committee, this is not unusual to link a fight for [racial] justice, to link that with peace. There will be no peace without justice,” Eide said.
Activist Rosanna Arquette tweeted, “Black Lives Matter nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is such inspiring news and so well deserved. A movement for justice.”
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