Cullors to deliver MLK address

Published January 13, 2021

Social activist Patrisse Cullors, co-creator of the viral Twitter hashtag and movement #BlackLivesMatter, will speak on Feb. 10 as part of UB’s Distinguished Speakers Series.

Cullors’ virtual talk, UB's 45th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration keynote address, will take place at 7 p.m. EST Feb. 10 via Zoom. Registration is now open for the talk, which is free and open to the public. After registration, attendees will receive an event access link to their device. Registration is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Cullors co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 after sparking the viral Twitter hashtag. The movement has since expanded into an international organization with dozens of chapters around the world campaigning against anti-Black racism.

She also founded the Los Angeles-based grassroots organization Dignity and Power Now. For the past 20 years, she has been on the frontlines of criminal justice reform and led the Reform LA Jails’ “Yes on R” campaign, a ballot initiative that passed by a 71% landslide victory in March 2020. 

Her memoir, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir,” published in 2016, became an instant New York Times bestseller. Cullors’ work for Black Lives Matter garnered her recognition in TIME magazine’s 2020 100 Women of the Year project honoring the most influential women of the past century.

For more information, visit the series’ website.