Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City

Background and Activity

Black Lives Matter OKC has been active since at least 2016, and has also operated as Black Lives Matter Oklahoma. The group is led by T. Sheri Dickerson, who has been identified as the organizer and leader of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma and Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City. ^{2 3}

The group’s website states that the group was formed in 2016 “in the state that is number one in the nation for law enforcement killings of civilians.” The group declares, “We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, men, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movement.” ⁴

In 2016, the group participated in Black Lives Matter protests in coordination with groups including OKC Artists for Justice, NAACP OKC, the MLK Coalition, and the ACLU of Oklahoma. The event was promoted by ACLU Oklahoma and the event announcement addressed an assassination of police officers in Dallas, distancing the protests from the shooting and stating that the shooters in Dallas were not affiliated with Black Lives Matter. ²

The group garnered increased visibility in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked Black Lives Matter protests throughout the country. Oklahoma City saw many nights of “protests and demonstrations,” some of which turned violent; Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City stated that the group was not involved in such riots. ⁵

In 2021, Black Lives Matter OKC leader T. Sherri Dickerson praised the national Black Lives Matter Movement’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Local news reported that “Dickerson says the movement is being recognized more than ever for its work in advocating for victims of police brutality and dismantling systems of white supremacy. In the years since the hashtag first appeared for the death of Trayvon Martin, Dickerson says it’s changed the way people talk about police brutality and inequality.” ⁶

Alliance for Global Justice

Black Lives Matter OKC is affiliated with the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ), a controversial fiscal sponsor that supports numerous radical-left causes and activist groups. AfGJ has sponsored groups with alleged ties to foreign militant organizations and far-left movements across Latin America and the Middle East. In January 2023, the Washington Examiner reported that the Ford Foundation ceased all grantmaking to AFGJ after “years of warnings” about the organization’s ties to a Palestinian group with terrorist designations under U.S. law. ^{7 8}

Black Lives Matter OKC operates under AfGJ’s legal and tax status. It does not file independent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, publish audited financial statements, or disclose its internal governance. The group’s revenue sources, expenditures, and budget scale remain unclear. ^{7 9 4}

Controversy

In December 2025, Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City (BLM OKC) executive director Tashella Sheri Amore was arrested and charged by a federal grand jury on 20 counts of wire fraud and 5 counts of money laundering. According to the indictment, between June 2020 and October 2025, Amore had allegedly embezzled money from the BLM OKC accounts for persona benefit, placing roughly $3.15 million in returned bail checks into her personal accounts instead of into BLMOKC’s accounts. Such items she spent the embezzled money from include travel expenses to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, personal shopping, at least $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries, purchasing a personal vehicle for herself, and six retail properties in the Oklahoma City region. In addition, the indictment reported that Amore had used wire communications in order to submit several false annual reports to its parent organization and fiscal sponsor Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ) for BLM OKC and indicated the funds were being used for tax-exempt purchases and not personal purchases. ^{10 11}