What Were Black Lives Matter Leaders Doing With a $6 Million House?

Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag marking the death of Trayvon Martin and the failure to find justice after his killing. Now, one of those core groups, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, is the subject of a recent report about its finances, specifically its purchase of a $6 million home in Malibu, California, under the guidance of the group’s former leader, Patrisse Cullors, ostensibly as both a safe house and as a space to film social media videos. I also knew from sources that there had been coordination with a security hub that Black Lives Matter was using to monitor property where Patrisse Cullors’ brother was the head of the security, monitoring not only that home but also other properties that we believe she purchased with her own funds. Some of the pushback from supporters of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and even some of their members has been, look, lots of other large nonprofits purchase buildings as an investment. It has been a known problem within the Black Lives Matter movement that many of the activists who are doing on-the-ground work—they’re so passionate for it, and this doesn’t pay much—that they are going homeless.