Tipsheet

After Report on BLM Co-founder's 'Real-estate Buying Binge,' Fellow Activist Calls For Investigation

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  April 12, 2021 8:20 AM

After a report came out that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors bought a $1.4 million home last month in a secluded area of California where less than 2 percent of the population is black, critics accused her of being a fraud and ‘selling her people out.’ Now we’re learning that the Topanga Canyon home was one of three she owns in the Los Angeles area, in addition to the Georgia abode Cullors and her spouse bought last year.

The New York Post described the purchases as a "real estate-buying binge" totaling $3.2 million.

The Topanga Canyon homestead has two houses on a quarter acre of land with canyon views, while the Georgia property near Atlanta is a "custom ranch" on 3.2 acres and has a private airplane hanger, indoor pool, and "RV shop."

In addition to her work with BLM, the activist and self-proclaimed Marxist published a best-selling memoir in 2018 called “When They Call You a Terrorist.” She also signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television Group in October.

Khan-Cullors began her buying spree in L.A. in 2016, a few years after the civil rights movement she started from a hashtag — #blacklivesmatter — with fellow activists Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi began to gain traction around the world.

That year, she bought a three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home in Inglewood for $510,000. It is now worth nearly $800,000. Khan-Cullors added her wife, the co-founder of Black Lives Movement in Canada, to the deed in a family trust last year. The couple married in 2016.

Two years later, in 2018, Khan-Cullors purchased a four-bedroom home in South Los Angeles, a multi-ethnic neighborhood. Khan-Cullors paid $590,000 for the 1,725 square-foot home, although the price has since climbed to $720,000, according to public records.

Three of the homes were bought in Khan-Cullors’ name, and the Topanga Canyon property was purchased under a limited liability company that she controls, according to public records cited by “Dirt,” the real estate blog that first reported the March 30 purchase. (New York Post)

In addition to these stateside homes, Cullors and her spouse reportedly eyed a luxury property at a high-end resort in the Bahamas. 

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Fellow activists were surprised by the real estate purchases. 

Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, called for “an independent investigation” to find out how the global network spends its money.

“If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” he said. “It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.” (New York Post)

Twitter users were just as critical.