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BLM organization is three separate entities

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The Black Lives Matter organization has been under criticism recently. Money may have been improperly used and there have been questions about who is actually in charge of the organization.

What people don’t know is that the BLM organization is split into different sectors. During a zoom conference, BLM Grassroot leader Melina Adbullah explained the difference and what each organization does.

Abdullah has been working with BLM since 2013 after the non-conviction of Trayvon Martin’s killer. Since then, she has been at the forefront of marching, protesting, and mobilizing the Black community to stand up for social and civil justice.

“Amid attacks, criticism, and critics, what we have been doing in Los Angeles has been fighting for justice for the Black community and, recently, Ryan Twyman,” she said.

Twyman was shot and killed in 2019 by former Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Andrew Lyons. At the time of the shooting, Lyons was on duty when he and a second deputy answered a call in Willowbrook.

They encountered Twyman, who was under investigation for an illegal gun case, parked in a car. Twyman’s vehicle then reversed towards the deputies. Both deputies fired at the car with their handguns an estimated 34 times, according to CBS news.

Lyons appeared in court and was charged with one felony count of voluntary manslaughter and two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.

“The BLM Grassroots is the on-the-groundwork assembly of chapters, who have tied themselves together through principles and a mission to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people,” said Abdullah.

“I want to state that BLM Grassroots has no decision making power, or influence over the Global Network Foundation, as no member of the Grassroots was staff or board members for them,” she added. “The Global Network Foundation was initiated in 2020, but prior to that, BLM was just BLM. BLM Grassroots was created in 2020, but they were created through the various state chapters that shared the same principles and mission.”

Since 2020, the BLM movement has been split into three separate entities: The Black Lives Black Matter Political Action Committee; BLM Global Network Foundation; and BLM Grassroots, with the latter being the original BLM Group that started in 2013, but wasn’t officially recognized as a 503 non-profit organization until 2020.

As news broke that BLM Global Network Foundation has $42 million in assets, Adbullah made it clear that they have no access to it.

“Once again we have no access to Global Network or their resources as we are not connected to them,” she said. “Any information we have is public knowledge as we receive information the same time as everybody else does, when it comes to the 990 forms and anything associated with the Global Network.”

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