American · b. 1983
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an American activist, artist, and author. Born in 1983 and raised in Van Nuys, California, she became an organizer after seeing how policing and incarceration affected her family, especially her brother Monte. In 2013, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin, she created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, who together founded the Black Lives Matter movement. She served as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and earlier worked with Dignity and Power Now, an organization that advocates for incarcerated people and their families. Her memoir When They Call You a Terrorist, written with asha bandele, became a New York Times bestseller in 2018. She has also written Healing Together and co-authored An Abolitionist's Handbook. Her work links personal history to a broader argument against policing and prisons, and it has shaped public debate about race and justice in the United States.