About

Fighting for the protection and liberation of Black lives.

Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County is a social advocacy organization fighting for the protection and liberation of Black Life through advocacy and direct action.

We believe that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.

 BLMSKC centers leadership on Black femmes, women, queer and trans people dismantling anti-black systems and policies of oppression.

Black Lives Matter fights for the whole of Black Life. With partners, we prompted King County to declare racism a public health crisis, then provided free medical and social services during a Black-Led Wellness Weekend. With our allies in the labor movement, we lead the #StrikeForBlackLives. 

We lift up our community voices. In a matter of weeks, our volunteers raised and granted a quarter-million dollars to Black media, Black legal aid, and other Black community organizations. We center leadership on Black femmes, women, queer, and trans people. 

Our fight is collective, urgent, and endurant.

Board of Directors

The Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County Board of Directors are strategists, activists, and partners who work in community to dismantle anti-Black policies.

  • Ebony M.
  • Fox Hampton
  • Jordan C.
  • Livio De La Cruz
  • Marlon B.
  • Percy H.
  • Anthony Canape
  • Kemi D.
  • Gabby D.

Our Guiding Principles

Every day, we recommit to healing ourselves and each other, and to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported.

  • We are committed to Black-led chapters and we center Black leadership.
  • We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.
  • We work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.
  • We intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting.
  • We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black lives matter, we need not qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a prerequisite for wanting the same for others.
  • We see ourselves as part of the global Black family, and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black people who exist in different parts of the world.
  • We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status or location.
  • We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.
  • We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
  • We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny and environments in which men are centered.
  • We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.
  • We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children.
  • We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.
  • We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents and children are comfortable.
  • We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).
  • We cultivate an intergenerational and communal network free from ageism. We believe that all people, regardless of age, show up with the capacity to lead and learn.
  • We embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.