Fortune Magazine named the three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement to its 2016 list of the World’s Greatest Leaders. Absent from the list is President Barack Obama.
Coming in at No. 27 on the list together are Black Lives Matter activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Garza coined the phrase, Cullors made it into a hashtag, and together with Tometi, they created the Black Lives Matter network.
The staff of Fortune Magazine explained their pick in their bio of three women. “Modern social movements often fizzle after their moment in the national news (Occupy Wall Street and to a lesser extent the Tea Party come to mind). But Black Lives Matter has steadily gained momentum since its founding in 2013,” they wrote.
“Last year the movement inspired college students to take up the mantel, with some successes (the system president and chancellor of the University of Missouri resigned over outcry they failed to address campus racism),” Fortune added. “They also pushed the presidential candidates to address the country’s systemic racism – an issue would-be nominees would probably have preferred to sidestep.”
As a side note, the historic Republican victories in the 2014 midterm elections coupled with Tea Party hero Sen. Ted Cruz still standing tall in the GOP race for the White House runs contrary to the Fortune’s assessment that the movement (founded in 2009) has fizzled.
Some at the top Fortune’s list include: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (who came in the top spot), German Chancellor Anglea Merkel (No. 2), Pope Francis (No. 4), Apple CEO Tim Cook (No. 5), and new House Speaker Paul Ryan (No. 8).
Other noteworthy people and their rankings are Alabama coach Nick Saban (11), U2’s Bono (14), NBA star Stephen Curry (15), and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (17).
