I'm Lee Rowland, and from the ACLU, this is At Liberty, the weekly podcast where we discuss

major issues in civil rights and civil liberties.

Today, I'll be talking with Patrice Cullors, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter.

Patrice is an artist, a community organizer, a Fulbright scholar, and an author.

We're going to learn about her political activism in the origins and future of Black Lives Matter,

a movement that was founded exactly five years ago on July 13, 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Patrice, welcome, and thank you so much for

joining us today.

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

So you have co-founded this incredible movement that has changed, the nature of racial justice advocacy, here in the United States, how we talk about race.

You are a Fulbite scholar. You're an artist and activist.

What made you choose this life?

It chose me.

It chose me.

I think I grew up in conditions that were deeply traumatic and unfortunate and also incredibly planned.

And I grew up in an environment that was more invested in divesting from my family and my community.

And I grew up going to mostly white schools where I got to see

how they were treated, where I got to see, you know, young people being given things that I was,

I never received. And so I lived in sort of these two worlds. And it became very clear to me that the way that I was living, what I was going back home to, was unacceptable.

And I had a fire in my belly to want to do something about it.

And I was really fortunate to go to a social justice high school where I sort of got the language and the

understanding of, oh, this could be my life. I can fight for change. So, Patrice, can you tell us,

where were these two worlds that you straddled? And what do you mean when you say this was a planned

...