PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – One of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement was on the campus of Prairie View A&M University to inspire students and to speak about the death of Sandra Bland.
Alicia Garza, along with two other activists, made #BlackLivesMatter a household phrase.
"The message Tuesday night was about creating a legacy and about creating history," Garza said.
At the forefront of the conversation was the 2015 arrest and death of Prairie View alum Sandra Bland, a topic Garza addressed head-on.
"We're still demanding justice for Sandra Bland," Garza said. "We still want to know what happened to Sandra Bland."
Bland's death in jail has been ruled a suicide, but the DPS trooper who arrested her last July has been indicted for perjury related to that arrest. Students were inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement's continued attention on the matter.
"It's very important," senior Mirissa Tucker said. "We need for people to remember what happened to Sandra Bland."
"It means a lot to everyone else I know that she was here to speak on that situation and what happened and what went down with that," freshman Lamontre Grant said.
Garza's address was part of the university's Students Participating In Transcendent Knowledge, or SPIT Knowledge series.
