VCU news

By Brian McNeill

Opal Tometi, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, will speak at Virginia Commonwealth University on March 31.

Tometi, an activist who has worked at the intersection of racial justice and immigrant rights for more than a decade, will speak at 7 p.m. at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St. in Richmond.

Tometi, along with Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, created the Twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in the wake of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, prompting activism nationwide and introducing the banner under which this generation’s civil rights movement marches.

Tometi’s talk, “#BlackLivesMatter: Hashtag in Action,” will be free and open to the public.

Tometi is executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, a national organization that educates and advocates to further immigrant rights and racial justice together with African-American, Afro-Latino, African and Caribbean immigrant communities.

Her visit is sponsored by the VCU School of Social Work and coordinated by the School of Social Work Black Lives Matter Student-Faculty Collective. According to the collective, it believes the time is right for Richmond and VCU to look honestly at the past and make bold decisions about the future. The group’s goal in hosting Tometi as a representative of the Black Lives Matter movement is that it will serve as a call to action for everyone. 

For questions, please contact VCU School of Social Work assistant professors in teaching Stephanie Odera at sgodera@vcu.edu or Daryl Fraser at fraserdv@vcu.edu.

Media interested in covering Tometi’s talk will be welcome, but recording will only be permitted during the first five minutes and flash photography will not be allowed.