Synopses & Reviews
This is the story of how movement that started with a hashtag — #BlackLivesMatter — spread across the nation and then across the world and the journey that led one of its co-founders, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, to this moment.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors grew up in an over-policed United States where incarceration of Black people runs rampant. Surrounded by police brutality, she gathered the tools and lessons that would lead her on to found one of the most powerful movements in the world. This is her story.
Necessary and timely, When They Call You a Terrorist reminds us that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love: that love is the push to search for justice for those victimized by the powerful. With journal entries, photos and notes that show the formation of an activist from a very young age, this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience seeks to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.
Review
"A gripping, much-needed memoir about a Black woman, a movement, and people fighting for freedom denied." Kirkus
Review
"This memoir is a reflection on humanity, lauded as an empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, and is the kind of call to action we need now more than ever." Book Riot
Review
"This book is more than the origin story of BLM and more than Khan-Cullors's revolutionary journey. She creates space for difficult thoughts and conversations to begin." School Library Journal
About the Author
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an artist, organizer, and freedom fighter from Los Angeles, CA. Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, she is also a performance artist, Fulbright scholar, popular public speaker, and an NAACP History Maker.
asha bandele is the award-winning author of The Prisoner's Wife and several other works. Honored for her work in journalism and activism, asha is a mother, a former senior editor at Essence and a senior director at the Drug Policy Alliance.