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Virginia Tech's Graduate Life Center Auditorium was packed front to back on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. for keynote speaker Opal Tometi, in part of a week-long celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Tometi is one of the co-founders of the international movement Black Lives Matter and is the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

Tometi spoke to an audience of students, staff members and Blacksburg residents. At the end of the interview, she answered three audience questions submitted on paper and collected by members of the Black Organization Council.

According to Tometi, her motivation for her activism was ignited by the murder of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Her fear was that in the current political and social climate, her little brother could end up in a similar deadly situation.

I was completely floored that a jury could deliberate and let him walk. It was like Trayvon Martin was on trial himself, Tometi said. Out of sheer love for my brother, I wanted to tell another story.

"Hearing her say that Black Lives Matter is so much more than just black lives made me realize it's about picking people up that have been thrown under the bus for so many generations."

Kimberly Williams of the Intercultural Engagement Center was chairperson of the group that organized other celebrations in honor of King around campus, such as the Black Liberation Talk Luncheon at the Black Cultural Center on Tuesday and a speech by Dr. Nnamdi Pole about ethnoracial diversity in post traumatic stress in Pamplin on Thursday. Similar events occurred all week long in Radford and all over the New River Valley as well.

Hearing her say that Black Lives Matter is so much more than just black lives made me realize its about picking people up that have been thrown under the bus for so many generations, said junior horticulture major Shaina Pigliacampi. This made me realize that its more important than people think it is.

Sociology Professor Ellington Graves and the vice president of the Black Organizations Council, senior Meriam Nure, were seated onstage with Tometi asking her questions about how Black Lives Matter started and how the movement has affected her life. Additional questions concerned Tometis faith, self-care and security issues as a visible activist.

Its important to understand that the trigger for Black Lives Matter was not just the behavior of police and the over-policing of black bodies, but also the marginalization of black life in general, Graves said.

Tometi explained how Black Lives Matter came from a Facebook post from one of Tometis friends, then expanded into a Twitter hashtag and eventually into a network to promote their mission to improve quality of life for African Americans.

We used social media to amplify our message we were building a space for resilience and hope, Tometi said. People decided that they wanted a network.

"The movement is ours. I'm proud of us."

In addition to how the Black Lives Matter movement started, Tometi recognized that the organization is not perfect, but is constantly evolving to be more intersectional.

Ive been blown away by how courageous we are and how powerful the human will is and to see hundreds and thousands of people mobilize around the globe. The movement is ours. I'm proud of us, Tometi said. I have so much hope in humanity because Im sitting in a room with people like you.

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Opal Tometi speaks on Black Lives Matter movement - Virginia Tech Collegiate Times