Opal Tometi, co-founder of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the head of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), is slated to speak at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg next month.
A first-generation Nigerian-American, Tometi has been active in immigrant rights for much of the past decade. As director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, she became a vocal opponent of Arizona’s controversial SB-1070. She was picked last year by the Los Angeles Times as one of the new civil rights leaders in the country.
The point was really to engage people who are community organizers or just concerned citizens in this moment in racial justice,” Tometi told The Nation last year regarding the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement. “How are we specifically addressing anti-black violence as it occurs? More broadly, I really wanted to open up the space for a conversation that moved beyond police brutality. So that’s why we kind of kept it broad.”
Tometi will speak at Eckerd College’s Fox Hall on Feb. 29.
