The Black Lives Matter Movement Is Nominated for a Noble Peace Prize

The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for a 2021 Noble Peace Prize.

According to reports, the organization was nominated by Norwegian parliament member Petter Eide, who believes “Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice.”

“For the Nobel Prize Committee, this is not unusual to link a fight for (racial) justice, to link that with peace,” he added in his statement. “There will be no peace without justice.”

Eide described Black Lives Matter as “the strongest global force against racial injustice” and thinks awarding them the prize will send a ”powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity and human rights.”

The Black Lives Matter movement was cofounded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman’s homicide charges after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Florida. 

The movement and its #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has gained recognition globally over the years and erupted in 2020 after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, which ignited a racial reckoning in the U.S. and around the world. 

In response to the nomination, the organization wrote via Twitter: “We hold the largest social movement in global history. Today, we have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. 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,” they added.

The Black Lives Matter cofounders also shared their reaction to the news via Instagram, sharing what this means for the movement and Black lives everywhere.

“This is what happens when the truth is undeniable and when courage becomes more contagious than fear,” Tometi wrote. “Let’s be clear this isn’t about any one individual, but about the power of the people when we rise up for justice.”

“I’ve spent the last 24 hours processing what it means for #BlackLivesMatter to be nominated for the #NobelPeacePrize,” Cullors began her caption.

“I’ve thought about how for hundreds of years Black folks have been fighting for our freedom,” she continued. “How every generation pushes the world to see the trauma of white supremacy and the absolute urgency to root it out of our society so that Black people can not just survive but thrive.”

Cullors added, “If our movement wins the Nobel Peace Prize it’s because millions of people, over the last 7 years, have showed up to continue the fight for Black liberation.”

According to People, the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be selected in October 2021 with the award ceremony currently scheduled for December.