Co-founder of Black Lives Matter organization announces resignation

Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, announced she is stepping down from her role as executive director of the movement’s foundation.

Cullors, who co-founded the group with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, announced in a YouTube video that she was leaving the role but expressed confidence that the movement would still be led by “amazing” activists.

“I was trained as a community organizer to always allow for other people to lead. This work is not about one individual person, this work is about all of us,” she said Thursday.

“There are amazing, competent folks inside of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, we have amazing leaders at Black Lives Matter Grassroots.”

Cullors, now 37, has led the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years and said she plans on spending time with her 5-year-old child and working on other projects, including the release of her second book and a TV development deal with Warner Bros.

“I feel excited for our movement and I feel excited for me and my next journey,” she said.

Cullors’s resignation caps off a roughly eight-year tenure at the helm of an organization that was founded in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin’s shooting. Black Lives Matter has since turned into a household name and has raked in millions of dollars.

“It’s the first time ever that a Black liberation movement in this country has been given the necessary resources so that we can actually challenge white supremacy,” Cullors said.