# Opal Tometi

### Context

Ayọ Tometi (Opal Tometi) is a Nigerian-American human-rights organizer and co-founder of [Black Lives Matter](/organizations/black-lives-matter) who has
also worked extensively on Black immigrant rights. The most useful way to place this record in context is to start
with the institution or movement through which the person could actually exercise influence, rather than treating
visibility as equivalent to control. Tometi, who now uses the name Ayọ Tometi, co-founded Black Lives Matter with
Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors after the 2013 acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin, helping develop the
digital infrastructure and international reach of the movement. That baseline is supported by [Ayọ Tometi official
biography](https://ayotometi.org/biography/), which anchors the chronology and the relevant office, legal
proceeding, campaign or movement. The surrounding context matters because political and social outcomes are usually
produced by coalitions, institutions and external constraints as well as individual choices. Tometi remains an
organizer and public advocate, while the decentralized nature of Black Lives Matter means no single founder controls
the movement’s many local organizations or every action taken under its name. A second source, [Black Lives
Matter](https://blacklivesmatter.com/the-black-lives-matter-global-network-celebrates-the-leadership-of-two-co-founders-as-they-transition-to-focus-on-other-impactful-projects/),
helps distinguish the durable part of the record from later interpretation or reputation.

### Record

The documented record has two especially important strands. First, Tometi, who now uses the name Ayọ Tometi,
co-founded Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors after the 2013 acquittal in the killing of
Trayvon Martin, helping develop the digital infrastructure and international reach of the movement. Second, Her
earlier and continuing work has centered on immigrant rights, including leadership at the Black Alliance for Just
Immigration. Black Lives Matter’s own account says she transitioned out of day-to-day network leadership in 2018 to
focus on other work. Read together, these events identify where Ayọ Tometi (Opal Tometi) had direct agency and where
the person operated through a larger institution, coalition, court, company, union or movement. [Ayọ Tometi official
biography](https://ayotometi.org/biography/) supports the first strand, while [Black Lives
Matter](https://blacklivesmatter.com/the-black-lives-matter-global-network-celebrates-the-leadership-of-two-co-founders-as-they-transition-to-focus-on-other-impactful-projects/)
supports the second. That distinction prevents over-attribution: holding a title can create leverage, but it does
not mean every outcome during a tenure was personally authored. At the same time, formal limits do not erase
responsibility for decisions, testimony, organizing, bargaining or public advocacy that the evidence connects
directly to Ayọ Tometi (Opal Tometi).

## Dated facts

_No published facts on this page yet._

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/opal-tometi