Patrisse Cullors

Patrisse Marie Khan-Cullors Brignac (born June 20, 1983) is an American activist, artist, and writer who helped start the Black Lives Matter movement. She came up with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 and has given many talks and written pieces about the movement.

Her other causes include ending mass incarceration in Los Angeles and supporting LGBTQ rights. She often uses ideas from critical theory in her work. She has faced criticism over how she spent money and managed funds from Black Lives Matter.

Early life and education

Cullors grew up in Los Angeles. Her mother, Cherice Foley, is a Jehovah’s Witness. Her biological father, Gabriel Brignac, she didn’t meet until she was eleven. She was raised by Alton Cullors, who worked at a General Motors plant in Van Nuys until it closed, after which he took low-paying jobs.

She has two brothers, Paul and Monte, and a sister, Jasmine. Gabriel was a repeat offender jailed many times on drug charges; he died in a homeless shelter in 2009. Cullors says he was a constant, caring presence in her life.

Her brother Monte was arrested in 1999 for stealing their mother’s car. He was later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. Cullors says that during a fight with prison officers, he was choked, badly beaten, and forced to drink toilet water. She points to this as a key reason for her activism.

She lived in a Section 8 apartment in Van Nuys, a poor, mostly Mexican-American neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Her stepfather Alton eventually left, leaving her mother to raise the kids alone. When Cullors was nine, she saw her 11- and 13-year-old brothers slammed into a wall by police for no reason.

At twelve, she was arrested for smoking marijuana. At the time, she attended Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks, a wealthy school with mostly white students and a gifted program. She felt ashamed arriving there in her mother’s car.

White girls at that school introduced her to weed. But she was arrested while attending Van Nuys Middle School for summer school because of poor grades—a school mostly for working-class and non-white kids. The transition shocked her; that school had metal detectors and police guards, unlike her other school.

She became an activist young, joining the Bus Riders Union as a teenager under Eric Mann and taking part in a year-long organizing program run by the Labor Community Strategy Center. There she learned about revolutionaries, critical theory, and global social movements while practicing activism. She attended Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda and was admitted to its social justice magnet program. She later earned a degree in religion and philosophy from UCLA and a Master of Fine Arts from USC’s Roski School of Art and Design.

At sixteen, she was forced out of her home after coming out as queer. Raised a Jehovah’s Witness, her family was shunned by the church and extended relatives because of her mother’s teenage pregnancy.

She stayed committed to the faith for years, even while exiled, but eventually grew disillusioned. She became interested in the Nigerian tradition of Ifá and incorporated its rituals into political protests. In 2015, she said seeking spirituality helped her understand how her conditions shaped her and how she saw them as part of a larger fight for her life.

Career

Cullors has taught at Otis College of Art and Design’s Public Practice Program and in Prescott College’s Master’s program in Social Justice and Community Organizing.

Black Lives Matter

Along with friends and organizers Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, she 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 #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 to back up Garza’s use of the phrase in a Facebook post about the case. She says her push for African-American rights also came from her brother Monte’s brutal treatment in Los Angeles County jails.

Cullors and her co-founders aimed to build a decentralized movement run by consensus of a members’ collective, and in 2015 a network of chapters formed. She has been the most visible co-founder, especially after Garza and Tometi stepped back.

She credits social media with exposing violence against Black people, saying that images of Black death bombard Black folks daily, implying they might be next. In 2017, she said the movement would not meet with President Donald Trump, just as it wouldn’t have met with Adolf Hitler, calling Trump “the epitome of evil” representing racism, capitalism, sexism, and homophobia. In May 2021, after six years in the role—during which she set up the organization’s infrastructure—Cullors resigned.