Black Lives Matter nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for carrying forward 'a movement of racial justice'
Grace Hauck | USA TODAY
Black Lives Matter has been nominated for a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Norwegian member of parliament Petter Eide said he nominated the organization because it is "bringing forward a new consciousness and awareness about racial justice."
"To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia," Eide told USA TODAY on Saturday.
Eide said Black Lives Matter carries forward the legacy of earlier racial justice movements, such as the civil rights movement in the U.S. and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela won the prize in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their campaigns against racial discrimination in South Africa.
"For the Nobel Prize Committee, this is not unusual to link a fight for (racial) justice, to link that with peace," Eide said. "There will be no peace without justice."