Black Lives Matter Grassroots organizer Sheila Bates stands among protesters outside the Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood Dec. 9, where demonstrators accused Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Chair Cicely Gay of financial mismanagement during a gala event.
Photo by Stephen Oduntan
By Stephen Oduntan
Contributing Writer
HOLLYWOOD — The chanting carried down Lexington Avenue Dec. 9, rising over a row of brake lights glowing red along the narrow block outside the Taglyan Cultural Complex. Car horns burst in sharp, overlapping blasts — some impatient, some curious — as a dozen Black Lives Matter Grassroots organizers stood beneath the streetlamps holding hand-painted signs that read
“No honor for thieves,” “Return the movement,” and “Grassroots, not grifters.”
“Cicely Gay is a thief! No honor for thieves!” they shouted, their voices cutting through the hum of traffic and the rumble of idling cars. From apartment windows overlooking the block, a few residents cracked their blinds, drawn by the scene below— some watching silently, others leaning out to record it on their phones.
Private security guards formed a line between the sidewalk and the gated gala entrance, ushering guests through as the chants swelled each time a vehicle slowed at the driveway.
At the center of the demonstration was an award being given to Cicely Gay, chair of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. For organizers like Sheila Bates, Gay represents what they describe as years of mismanagement and the siphoning of resources away from the families and activists who built the Black Lives Matter movement.
The demonstration came just weeks after the Associated Press reported that federal prosecutors had issued subpoenas as part of an inquiry into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s finances — an inquiry believed to focus on how tens of millions of dollars raised during the 2020 racial-justice uprisings were handled.
To clarify the scope of any possible inquiry, The Wave contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson responded “No” when asked whether an investigation exists, adding that the office “can neither confirm nor deny the issuance of subpoenas or search warrants.”
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots and a longtime movement organizer, said the latest development in the dispute brought her neither surprise nor satisfaction.
The allegations shouted by protesters outside the Hollywood gala, she noted, echoed warnings Grassroots has issued for years.
“We filed our civil suit back in 2022,” Abdullah said. “We knew the money was stolen from the movement.”
But she cautioned against treating a federal inquiry as vindication.
“A criminal investigation by a Trump-led Justice Department is not something we take delight in,” she said. “We’re not naïve enough to believe the enemy of our enemy is our friend.”
For additional transparency, The Wave also reached out to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, asking about the subpoenas, its relationship with BLM Grassroots, longstanding disputes over movement platforms, and how much of the roughly $90 million raised in 2020 reached local organizers and families.
The foundation did not answer those questions, instead offering a brief statement:“Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is not a target of any federal criminal investigation.”
Beyond the night’s confrontation, the standoff reflects a deeper, years-long split between
the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation — the nationally recognized entity that received the bulk of donations in 2020 — and Black Lives Matter Grassroots, the coalition of local chapters formed long before the movement gained international attention.
In Black Lives Matter’s early years, chapters operated autonomously. But as donations surged after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd — a Black man whose death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer ignited worldwide protests — the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation emerged as the centralized structure controlling fundraising, public messaging and national partnerships. Grassroots organizers say they were pushed out of decision-making, denied access to donor information, and left without resources for on-the-ground organizing.
In 2022, BLM Grassroots filed a lawsuit accusing the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation of “hijacking” the movement’s infrastructure — email lists, social media accounts, and communication channels built over years of protest work. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has denied wrongdoing.
The result, organizers say, has been widespread confusion: donors often do not know the difference between the two entities. Families affected by police violence sometimes find themselves unsure which “Black Lives Matter” organization they are dealing with.
Abdullah said that confusion is not accidental.
“They not only stole our money — they also stole our platforms,” she said. “It makes it harder to reach supporters, harder to reach families, harder to organize.”
She also pointed to Bates as an example of the toll organizing can take. Bates, she said, still carries permanent injuries from a confrontation with Torrance police during demonstrations over the 2018 killing of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, a 23-year-old Black man shot by officers in a supermarket parking lot.
“A young member of ours was left permanently in a wheelchair from that same beating,” she added. “These sacrifices are what those resources were meant to support.”
During the Dec. 9 demonstration, protesters repeated a familiar set of allegations. Bates
accused the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation of “stealing $100 million,” saying funds raised in the names of Black people killed by police never reached the families or the organizers assisting them.
“They stole our platform. They stole our email lists. They stole our following of millions,” Bates said. “They need to give the movement back.”
Nearby, organizer Michael Williams spoke to attendees as they exited cars and walked toward the entrance.
“Cicely Gay can’t show up in Compton. She can’t show up in Leimert Park,” he said. “People know who actually shows up when someone is killed by police. When Dijon Kizzee was killed, it was Grassroots that comforted his family. Nobody saw Cicely Gay.”
The noise on the sidewalk swelled, prompting half a dozen Los Angeles police officers to arrive and instruct demonstrators on where they could stand before leaving the area.
Williams alleged that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation staff had called police to the scene.
“Black Lives Matter was created to fight police violence — not call the police on Black people,” he said. “That tells you everything.”
Moments later, as more cars rolled toward the entrance, chants rose again.
“No honor for thieves! No honor for thieves!”
Security personnel raised their voices, guiding guests past the protest and into the gala.
Afrikicks, which hosted the event, did not respond to The Wave’s request for comment.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation also did not respond to the allegations raised during the protest. In past statements, the foundation has accused Grassroots leaders of misrepresenting financial information and attempting to seize assets.
But for Bates and others on the sidewalk, the dispute is not bureaucratic — it is existential.
“All of this was built on the blood and tears of families who lost their children,” Bates said. “And the people being honored tonight don’t even know where some of those families live.”
Abdullah echoed the point, saying the work will continue regardless of whether disputed resources are ever returned.
“The money was meant for the work,” she said. “And the work is going to continue.”
She added that Grassroots still hopes for accountability.
“We are prayerful that spirit will call them into righteousness and they will return the resources
that belong to the movement.”
Stephen Oduntan is a freelance writer for Wave Newspapers.
