Authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely wrote All American Boys in response to police violence against Black communities, specifically in the wake of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson. The story they tell in this novel alludes to the Black Lives Matter movement.
In 2013, three Black female organizers, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, created Black Lives Matter: a project designed to build a Black-centered movement around racial justice. It began as a hashtag on social media, #BlackLivesMatter, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black boy.
In 2014, Michael Brown was murdered by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Videos documented that police left his body on the ground for four hours. Protesters in Ferguson took to the streets to express their grief, pain, and rage over the incident. Heavily militarized police forces responded with tear gas, pepper spray, and other tactics. Protests soon spread across the country, fuelling a national conversation about systemic racism and police brutality against Black communities. Within this context, organizers of Black Lives Matter sponsored a Black Life Matters Ride, modeled after the Freedom Riders of the 1960s. Over 600 of their members from across the country traveled to Ferguson to support the protesters; many of those members returned home and started Black Lives Matter chapters.
Over the course of 2014, Black Lives Matter grew into a national movement. In late 2013, #BlackLivesMatter had appeared on Twitter a total of 5,106 times. A year later, that number had reached 1.7 million. BLM organizers intentionally centered the leadership of women, queer, and trans people, wanting to create an inclusive movement. Now, Black Lives Matter is global with the goal of having an adaptive and decentralized structure to spur “the development of new Black leaders, as well as create a network where Black people feel empowered to determine our destinies in our communities.”
