Black Lives Matter cofounder stepping down from organization
CBSN
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors announced Thursday that she is stepping down from her role as executive director of the organization.
"With smart, experienced and committed people supporting the organization during this transition, I know that BLMGNF is in good hands," Cullors said in a statement Thursday. "The foundation's agenda remains the same — eradicate white supremacy and build life-affirming institutions. Cullors helped form the organization in 2013, after Florida teen Trayvon Martin was shot to death and the gunman, George Zimmerman, was aquitted. It then expanded to a global foundation called Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) with a mission is "to build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.