Why did Black Lives Matter ‘buy a $6m California mansion’?

Property to serve as housing and studio space for recipients, says group

Questions have been asked about the reported purchase of a $6m property in California by the former leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.

A year after one of the founders of the movement, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, alleged she was suffering from “right wing harassment” over her purchase of houses in the Los Angeles area, a controversy that would eventually lead her to quit the organisation, it was been reported that the group bought a $6m property, that was subsequently transferred to the ownership of a company in Delaware, ensuring the property’s owner could not be disclosed.

According to New York magazine, the 6,500 square feet property with at least half-a-dozen bedrooms was paid for with cash in in October 2020, using money that had been donated to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), by supporters of the group.

• ‘Tactic of terror’: BLM leader hits out at ‘right wing’ criticism after reports into her purchase of homes worth $3m

In a statement, Shalomyah Bowers, a BLMGNF board member, said the organisation had bought the property, whose precise location has not been revealed but has been referred to as “The Campus”,  with the intention for it to “serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship”.

A day after that statement was sent to New York magazine, BLMGNF announced the establishment of the fellowship, which “provides recording resources and dedicated space for Black creatives to launch content online and in real life focused on abolition, healing justice, urban agriculture and food justice, pop culture, activism, and politics”.

There is no allegation that the women acted illegally, or improperly.

However, some questions have been asked about the potential impression created by the purchase of such a property, something that has already been seized on by right wing media, and the likes of Donald Trump Jr, who retweeted the story, with the sarcastic phrase – “I’m surprised”.

Patrisse Cullors stood down from BLM’s leadership in the spring of 2021 (Getty Images for NILC)

Asked by New York magazine if the size of the acquisition could open the group to criticism, Jacob Harold – a former CEO of GuideStar and the co-founder of Candid, an information service that reports on nonprofits – said: “That’s a very legitimate critique.

“It’s not a critique that says what you’re doing is illegal or even unethical; it might just be unstrategic.”

He added: “Why aren’t you spending it on policy or, you know, other strategies that an organisation might take to address the core issues around Black Lives Matter?”

Ms Khan-Cullors, and two other BLM founders, Alicia Garza and Melina Abdullah, did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Independent. Both women have also left the organisation.

The BLMGNF did not respond to questions.

Last year, the Black sports journalist Jason Whitlock was among those to seize on the controversy about the amount of money being raised by BLMGNF.

He accused the  BLM founders of “making millions of dollars off the backs of these dead black men who they wouldn’t spit on if they were on fire and alive”.