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The Black Lives Matter social justice movement has beenrecognized with a global peace prize that in the past has highlighted the work of South African civil rights activistDesmond Tutu, renowned philosopher Noam Chomsky and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

The Sydney Peace Foundation announced last week it will give Black Lives Matter its 2017 peace prize during a ceremony scheduled in November for Sydney. The award recognizes the work of the founding leaders of the social justice activist network,Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, who began working togetherafter Florida neighborhood watchmanGeorge Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 in the shooting death of black teenTrayvon Martin.

"This is the first time that a movement and not a person has been awarded the peace prizea timely choice.Climate change is escalating fast, increasing inequality and racism are feeding divisiveness, and we are in the middle of the worst refugee crisis since World War II.Yet many establishment leaders across the world stick their heads in the sand or turn their backs on justice, fairness and equality," theSydney Peace Foundation said in announcing the award.

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Activists attend a Black Lives Matter protest in Manhattan against President Donald Trump and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on April 1. Reuters

Black Lives Matter has sometimes been accused by criticsof stirring racist division and violence, while organizers and supporters, including former President Barack Obama, have praised the activists for highlighting police brutality, economic inequality and other societal woes in the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri,and other violence.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to protect the public from "the dangerous anti-police atmosphere,"and roughly 52 percent of Republicansand28 percent of white people opposethe Black Lives Matter movement, according toa 2016 survey conducted bythe Pew Research Center,

"We're not just about hitting the streets or direct action.... It's a humanizing project, Cullors told The Guardian."We're trying to reimagine humanity and bring us to a place where we can decide how we want to be in relation to each other, versus criminalizing our neighbors or being punitive towards them."

Cullors added, "The complicated part of this is the question becomes: Do we need police? Are police going to give us ultimate safety? In our opinion,no, police are not going to give us safety. We've seen time and time again that actually what they do is provide death."

Police officers killed roughly266 black people in the United States in 2016.

The Sydney Peace Foundation, founded in 1998,promotes peace, justice and nonviolence by recognizing the world's most important leaders for peace with the Sydney Peace Prize,"the foundation's website says.

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Black Lives Matter Wins Global Peace Prize for Championing ... - Newsweek

A Black Lives Matter group in New York threw thrown a public unapologetically black Memorial Day party and barred non-black people fromattending.

The The Peoples Turn-up party, hosted at the Mayday Space organizing centerin Brooklynlast Saturday, advised partygoersthat the night was anintentional space andonly people who identify as black are welcomed.

Clear your calendar, said the party invite read,first noticed by The Blaze.

Its a lituation! Youre invited to take part in the UNAPOLOGETICALLY Black festivities. Bring yourself, bring Bae (or come find Bae), whatever you like. We got you. We got us.

Before the party, one of the party organizers, who goes by the name of Jewel Cadet on Facebook, wrote anote about whos welcome to the party.

When we say The People we mean Black People, the organizer wrote. Being intentional around being around Black People is an act of resistance.

This is an exclusively Black Space, she added, noting that if you do not identify as Black and want to come because you love Black People, please respect the space and do not come.

The venue was evasive when Heat Streetquestioned them on whether holding racially-segregated events is legal.

Over Facebook, the Mayday Space organizingcentertold us that it was a public event for those people within the organizing network that hosted it, but not something that Mayday advertised to our entire network.

Largely because it was intended as a space for Black-identified peopleto come together in community.

The center did not respond to a follow-up question about the legalityof barring people from entering a public event on the basis of race.

The Black Lives Matter party flyer also claimed that it was an intentional space where body-shaming, sexism, transphobia, fatphobia, toxic masculinity, or any acts of violence (small or large) wont be tolerated.

One attendee of the party asked whether there is a plan on how to deal with those (or other) things should they occur. Kei Williams, another co-organizer of the party, said set security staff would enforce them.

We have security in the space, along w/ vibe checkers, the moderator wrote. If these things occur folks can find one of those persons/or see myself, Jewel, or Al as we are lead coordinators.

It will not be tolerated & if this happens individuals can be asked to leave.

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Black Lives Matter Hosted Black-People-Only Party on Memorial Day - Heat Street

Wonder Woman is back, fighting for justice and spreading love around the world one theater at a time. She'sthe hero we need in these troubled times, but what does she think about the most pressing struggle in America today: the fight for justice for Black folks?

We askedWonder WomanstarGal Gadotand directorPatty Jenkinshow the iconic superhero would feel about Black Lives Matter and their answers may surprise you.

For Jenkins, it's not as simple as "love conquers all."

"Her message is that only love is only ever going to stop this, but she will fight for what is not right as well," Jenkins tells us in our exclusive interview. "That's the wonderful balance of Wonder Woman, she knows enough to understand that mankind that the more we don't become the hero within ourselves and that means everyone, to become kinder and more responsible for what they are bringing to the world. But until that happens, she would be right there fighting."

She adds, "I believe in standing up for oneself, and defending oneself, and defending what's right in the world...so I think that she would be completely supportive and understanding of that."

Gadot had thoughts of her own, taking a softer approach. "I think what's so amazing about Wonder Woman is that she's so inclusive, and she does not pay attention to any gender, race. And she's all about love and acceptance."

See our interview with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins, above, and see Wonder Woman in theaters everywhere this Friday, June 2.

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[Exclusive] What Does Wonder Woman Think of Black Lives Matter? - BET

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, assistant professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, excoriated Fox News on Thursday, saying that the mob-like mentality of its fringe audience caused her to cancel her upcoming public appearances over fear of grievous injury.

After giving the commencement speech at Hampshire College where she called President Donald Trump a racist and sexist megalomaniac Taylor said that Fox News aired footage of her speech and as a result was inundated with threats.

In a statement released on Thursday, Taylor said:

It is with great regret that I have decided to cancel my public lectures scheduled at Seattles Town Hall and at the University of California, San Diego this week. I am canceling my appearances for fear of my safety and my familys safety.

Since last Friday, I have received more than fifty hate-filled and threatening emails. Some of these emails have contained specific threats of violence, including murder.

Earlier this month, I delivered the commencement address at Hampshire Colleges graduation ceremony. My speech at Hampshire was applauded but Fox News did not like it. Last week, the network ran a story on my speech, describing it as an anti-POTUS tirade. Fox ran an online story about my speech and created a separate video of excerpts of my speech, which included my warning to graduates about the world they were graduating into. I argued that Donald Trump, the most powerful politician in the world, is a racist and sexist megalomaniac, who poses a threat to their future.

Shortly after the Fox story and video were published, my work email was inundated with vile and violent statements. I have been repeatedly called n*****, b***h, c**t, d**e, she-male, and c**n a clear reminder that racial violence is closely aligned with gender and sexual violence. I have been threatened with lynching and having the bullet from a .44 Magnum put in my head.

I am not a newsworthy person. Fox did not run this story because it was news, but to incite and unleash the mob-like mentality of its fringe audience, anticipating that they would respond with a deluge of hate-filled emails or worse. The threat of violence, whether it is implied or acted on, is intended to intimidate and to silence. In some sense, then, they have been successful.

In the last few weeks, white racists have committed heinous acts of violence. On May 20, a white alt-Right sympathizer, Sean Urbanski, murdered an African-American Bowie State University student, Richard Collins III, on the campus of the University of Maryland. Urbanski was a member of a Facebook group called Alt-Reich: Nation. And just this past weekend, a white supremacist in Portland, Oregon, murdered two men and attempted to murder another, when all three stepped in to stop an Islamophobic and racist attack on two young women riding public transit.

President Donald Trump finally decided to release a half-hearted and subdued tweet to oppose the murders in Portland, but with not nearly the same vigor he has used to incite his base against immigrants, while also whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria. The lethargy of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in responding to the actual threat of white supremacist, terrorist violence encourages the development of its networks and organizations across the country.

The cancelation of my speaking events is a concession to the violent intimidation that was, in my opinion, provoked by Fox News. But I am releasing this statement to say that I will not be silent. Their side uses the threat of violence and intimidation because they cannot compete in the field of politics, ideas, and organizing. The true strength of our side has not yet been expressed in its size and breadth, and so they believe they are winning. We have to change this dynamic and begin to build a massive movement against racism, sexism, and bigotry in this country. I remain undaunted in my commitment to that project.

The Washington Times reported on Thursday that Taylor, in her speech, told the students that the world in which they would soon become a larger part of is increasingly dangerous, and noted that Trumps campaign consisted of racism, corporatism, and militarism.

A spokesperson for Princeton confirmed with HigherEd that Taylor is currently on sabbatical and is aware of the threats she has received as a result of her commencement speech.

See her commencement speech in the video below.

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'Black Lives Matter' professor blasts Fox News for death threats, speech cancellations - TheBlaze.com

Legal Professional(1951)

Serving under President Barack Obama, Eric Holder was the first African-American attorney general of the United States.

Eric Holder was born on January 21, 1951 in New York City. He attended Columbia Law School. Holder was an associate judge of the D.C. Superior Court under President Reagan; U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., then deputy attorney general under Clinton; and for Obama, Holder was senior legal advisor to his presidential campaign, later becoming the first African-American Attorney General in history. He announced his forthcoming resignation in September of 2014, succeeded in 2015 by Loretta Lynch.

Judge, lawyer, political advisor. Born Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. on January 2, 1951, to parents Eric and Miriam Holder in New York City. His mother was a telephone operator and his father was a real estate broker. His parents both held strong ties to Barbados; previously his father had emigrated from Saint Joseph, and his mother's family emigrated from Saint Philip. The eldest of two brothers, Holder grew up in the predominantly black neighborhood of East Elmhurst, Queens.

Holder attended a public school in his neighborhood until the fourth grade, when he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually gifted children. The school consisted of predominantly white students, which Holder says forced him to keep his "foot in both worlds." This only became more apparent when it came time to attend high school. While his friends at home chose to attend public schools in Queens, Holder's white schoolmates were taking an exam to enter the city's most elite institutions. Holder got into the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, an hour-and-a-half commute from his home, which pulled him even farther away from his neighborhood friends and community.

Holder says he concentrated mainly on his studies in high school, and felt overwhelmed by the rigorous academic demands placed on him at Stuyvesant. But the young man stayed well rounded; he was selected as the captain of the basketball team, and in 1969 he earned his high school diploma, as well as a Regents Scholarship.

That same year, Holder entered college at Columbia University. He played freshman basketball, attended shows at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, spent Saturdays mentoring local kids, and became active in civil rights. He received his bachelor's degree in American history from Columbia University in 1973. In 1974, he began attending Columbia Law School while also clerking for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Department of Justice's Criminal Division.

In 1976, Holder earned his law degree, and the Department of Justice gave him a job as part of the attorney general's honors program. He was assigned to the newly formed Public Integrity Section, which investigated and prosecuted official corruption on the local, state and federal levels.

In 1988, Holder was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan to become an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. During this time he presided over hundreds of civil and criminal trials. Holder was then nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. in 1993. He was the first African American to hold the position. During his four-year term, he created a domestic violence unit, a community prosecution project and a program for restricting gun laws.

In 1997, Holder made history yet again when President Clinton nominated him to be the deputy attorney general. Holder was quickly confirmed several months later by a unanimous vote in the Senate. He was the first African American elected to the position as well as the highest-ranking black person in law enforcement in the history of the United States at that time.

As deputy attorney general, Holder developed and issued the "Holder Memorandum," which spelled out the guidelines for the criminal prosecution of corporations. He also developed rules for the regulation of health care, and assembled a task force that determined how to investigate criminal investigations of high-ranking federal employees.

At the president's request, Holder created the organization, Lawyers for One America. The group was designed to bring greater diversity to the law profession and increase pro bono work among the nation's lawyers. Holder also briefly served under President George W. Bush as Acting Attorney General, during the pending confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

After serving in this position for four years, Holder joined the private sector to work at the law firm Covington and Burling LLC, in 2001. He represented clients such as the National Football League during its investigation of quarterback Michael Vick, and the negotiation of an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International.

In addition to his normal workload, Holder serves on a number of philanthropic boards, including the Columbia University board, the Save the Children Foundation, and Concerned Black Men, a group that seeks to help troubled youth in D.C. He has also been nationally recognized for his work in law; he was featured in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, and in 2008 he was named by The National Law Journal as one of "The Most 50 Influential Minority Lawyers in America" as well as by Legal Times for being one of the "Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Past 30 Years."

In late 2007, Holder joined Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor, and later served as one of three members on Obama's vice-presidential selection committee. Holder was appointed and confirmed as the 82nd U.S. attorney general in 2009, making him the first African-American attorney general in history.

With a tenure marked by civil rights work and calls to speak more openly about racial discrimination in the U.S., Holder also faced major controversy over the case of missing documents in relation to Operation Fast and Furious, which focused on tracking the sales of arms among Mexican drug cartels.

In August of 2014, Holder visited Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the shooting death of an unarmed African-American male by police officer Darren Wilson, with differing accounts of the incident. With waves of protests and both a police and national guard presence, Holder launched a Justice Department inquiry into the killing, ultimatelycorroborating Wilson's account of what happenedruling and declaring that he had not committed any civil rights violations. However, after reviewingFerguson's overall policing practices,the Justice Department found rampant constitutional violations that included unwarranted use of force and arrests of a population under duress, with racist slurs and images found in official governmental emails as well.

On September 25, 2014, the Justice Dept. announced that Holder would be resigning from his position, with an exit from his post having been in the works. Loretta Lynch succeeded Holder as attorney general in spring of the following year.

Holder is married to obstetrician Sharon Malone. The couple has three children: Maya, Brooke and Eric. They reside in Washington, D.C.

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Eric Holder Biography.com

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June 1, 2017

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April 29, 2015

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