When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

As the Black Lives Matter movement marks its five-year anniversary, community organizer Khan-Cullors and Bandele (The Prisoner's Wife) tell the story of how it all began. Khan-Cullors cofounded the movement with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013. The memoir isn't a manifesto for the movement but instead a heartfelt narrative about Khan-Cullors's experiences with police, prisons, poverty, and the lack of community resources that marginalize black (and brown) people. The memoir brings to life the terror black people face, but it also highlights the spirit of today's civil rights leaders. Black Lives Matter may have been born at a time of anger, but it's a movement rooted in love. That's the undercurrent flowing through Khan-Cullors's stories: her mother working day and night to provide for her family, her father showing that her black life mattered, her friends supporting her through life's challenges, her father's unexpected death, and her brother's struggles with his mental illness. Khan-Cullors narrates, the sincerity in her voice drawing listeners in so they see through her eyes and hear through her own words what it's like to grow up black and poor in America. Listeners gain an intimate understanding of who she is and what inspired her role in the movement.