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Black Lives Matter nominated for Nobel peace prize

Recognizing the movement "will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity, and human rights," wrote a Norwegian lawmaker.
Image: Black Lives Matter Movement Inspires Protest In London
Protesters raise clenched fists during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the Houses of Parliament on June 3, 2020 in London.Dan Kitwood / Getty Images file

A Norwegian lawmaker has nominated Black Lives Matter, the global racial justice movement, for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

In his nomination letter, Petter Eide, a Socialist Left member of the Storting, Norway's parliament, wrote that he had nominated Black Lives Matter "for their struggle against racism and racially motivated violence."

"BLM's call for systemic change have spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies," he continued.

The movement began after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer in 2013 and reached a peak in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, Eide wrote.

Eide cited Black Lives Matter's "online platform to provide activists with a shared set of principles and goals," saying the grassroots movement "comprises many views and a broad array of demands."

Eide noted that the Nobel committee has twice awarded the peace prize to antiracist South Africans — Albert Luthuli in 1960 and Nelson Mandela in 1993.

"Awarding the Peace Prize to Black Lives Matter, as the global strongest force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity, and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles," Eide said.

"Sometimes the committee have been very brave," Eide said via email to NBC News, pointing to the 1964 peace prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. and Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, the 2010 winner. Eide added that Black Lives Matter will be "among the favorites" when the winner is announced in December.