Black Lives Matter Co-founder Steps Down from Executive Position to Focus On Media Deals

A Black Lives Matter co-founder and self-proclaimed “trained Marxist” is to step down from her position as the executive director of the BLM Global Network Foundation on Friday.

Patrisse Cullors, a prominent racial activist who for the past six years has spearheaded the Black Lives Matter movement, is to step down to focus on new endeavours including a book and a television deal with the media giant Warner Bros.

Confirming that her resignation had been planned for over a year, Cullors told the Associated Press that she “felt the time was right” to move on from the organisation. 

“I’ve created the infrastructure and the support and the necessary bones and foundation so that I can leave.” 

Cullors’ resignation comes in the wake of a spate of attacks against her financial activities by both proponents and opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement. In April, Lotuseaters.com reported that a jail reform group set up by Cullors had spent $10,179 on “meetings and appearances” at the Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club in Malibu, California, and a further $15,593 at the Malibu Conference Center, a facility owned by the Calamigos Ranch. The regulatory body for political groups in California, The California Fair Political Practices Commission, requires that campaign funds “must be used for political, legislative, or governmental purposes.” Speaking in reference to the financial activities of Cullors’ organisation, Peter Flaherty, the chairman of the conservative watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center, said: 

“Reform LA Jails’ filings raise a number of questions. An audit would establish whether any campaign funds were used for personal purposes.”

Cullors, a self-proclaimed “trained Marxist,” was the protégé of Eric Mann, a former leader of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization. In July 2015, Cullors elaborated on her organisation’s Marxist-Leninist ideological rootings in an interview with Jared Ball of The Real News Network. 

“The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk.” 

Earlier in April, Cullors was the centre of scrutiny after it was revealed that she had spent $1.4 million on a home in a white-majority district of Los Angeles as well as several other million-dollar homes. According to the Associated Press, Cullors’ BLM accumulated $90m in donations in 2020. Hawk Newsome, a New York-based Black Lives Matter activist, called for an investigation into the racial activist group’s finances following reports of Cullors’ real estate buying spree.

“If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes. It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.”

Another critic said BLM’s funds should have been given to black victims of police brutality. Reverend T Sheri Dickerson, president of an Oklahoma City BLM chapter, called the organisation’s disconnect with the people they supposedly represented “tragic.” 

“I know some of [the families] are feeling exploited, their pain exploited, and that's not something that I ever want to be affiliated with.”

In a statement, the BLM Foundation said that it “did not commit any organisational resources toward the purchase of personal property by any employee or volunteer.”

Cullors, speaking to the Associated Press, insisted her resignation was not connected to the words of critics:

“Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me. I think I will probably be less visible because I won't be at the helm of one of the largest, most controversial organisations right now in the history of our movement. I'm aware that I'm a leader, and I don't shy away from that. But no movement is one leader.”