- [Interviewer] Trump says-- - He's not a racist, right.
- [Interviewer] He's the least racist person.
Do you believe him?
- He's a liar.
- [Narrator] This is Patrisse Cullors.
She's one of the three founders of Black Lives Matter.
We got her thoughts about President Trump,
alternative jails and the future of the movement
she helped start.
(crowd chanting)
- Black Lives Matter was a response to the death
of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter,
George Zimmerman.
The movement has since grown into a global network
with dozens of chapters.
But Patrisse says the issues
with injustice for African Americans,
particularly by police,
started years before the Zimmerman verdict.
- My very early memories of LAPD is them raiding my home
when I was probably five or six years old.
Then living out the next decade and a half
with cops in our buildings, in our homes, on our streets,
and not there to support us.
- [Narrator] In her new memoir,
When They Call You a Terrorist,
Patrisse talks about her brother, Monte Cullors,
who was diagnosed with a mental illness while in jail.
He was awaiting trial for evading an officer,
when he had a violent confrontation with a deputy.
- The experience gave me so much compassion
for people in his condition,
but it also was deeply enraging
because instead of my brother receiving
care and dignity and real treatment,
he was only, only offered criminalization.
- [Narrator] Fast forward to 2013,
George Zimmerman is acquitted in Trayvon Martin's death.
- I didn't think he was gonna get off.
I didn't think he was gonna get murder,
because white people don't get murder,
but maybe manslaughter.
We all knew he killed a child.
So what was the big hang up?
I just was like, "This can't be it.
"This can't be the way this happens.
"This can't be the final say."
And I went onto social media
searching for other people's responses.
I went onto Alicia Garza's Facebook.
She and I have been friends for years
and she wrote a love note to black people
and she closed it out with black lives matter
and I saw those three words and I was like,
hashtag black lives matter.
- [Woman] Put your hands up!
- [Crowd] Don't shoot.
- [Woman] Put your hands up!
- [Crowd] Don't shoot.
- [Narrator] A year later, she organized a freedom ride
in protest in Ferguson, Missouri,
after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown
by police officer Darren Wilson.
The unrest in Ferguson led to a wide wave of support
and criticism.
- [News Reporter] We have witnessed lawlessness
and chaos on the streets.
- [Narrator] The next year, unrest in Baltimore broke out
over 25 year old Freddie Gray
who was killed while being transported in a police van.
More chapters formed as more protests took place
all around the country.
Now in 2018, Black Lives Matter has 50 plus chapters
and a reputation, for better or worse,
known around the world.
- It's all lives matter and that should be the theme
of this country, frankly.
One of our themes.
- [Narrator] Trump has openly criticized
Black Lives Matter activists and the movement before.
But Trump has repeatedly denied being a racist.
- No, no I'm not a racist.
I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed.
- He's a liar.
He's a liar!
"I'm gonna create a Muslim ban,
"I'm gonna create a wall."
and then to say in the same breath,
"I'm not a racist."
is just a lie.
And it's very dangerous when we allow them
to decide who they are.
We already know that that's racist.
- [Narrator] We asked Patrisse if she could see
a day in America where there wouldn't be a need
for Black Lives Matter anymore.
- We just had a civil rights movement 40 years ago.
People act as if that's ancient history.
My mother lived during that time.
And so it's going to take decades for us to win
and probably centuries for us to win.
And that winning will look like
black people being able to live in a country
where they don't fear for their life.
That living will look like black women
being able to go give birth
without the risk of dying during birth or after birth.
That will look like black people thriving
and I don't know if I can see that.
I can pray for it, but it's something much more lofty
that I don't think exists in this current moment.
- [Narrator] But she did tell us about the steps
that can be taken now to make that future possible.
- We actually need alternatives to incarceration
in order to have a sustainable America.
And alternatives to incarceration
simply look like divesting
from using jails to treat people with mental illness.
It is an oxymoron to have a mental health jail.
We can spend it in providing communities
access to housing, access to shelter, access to green space.
If we were to just change these things over time,
we would see a decrease in the US jail
and prison population.
We have a significant amount of people
who are in jail because of marijuana use,
or marijuana selling.
We have a significant amount of people
who are in there for petty theft
because they're hungry,
because they had to feed their children
and so they decided to go to a grocery store
and steal some food.
Those are social ills, not criminal issues.