How Black women coined the ‘say her name’ rallying cry before Biden’s State of the Union address

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER
Associated Press

Hard-line Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wore a T-shirt to Thursday night’s State of the Union address that carried a seemingly simple message: Say Her Name. She borrowed the phrase from Black racial justice activists who have been calling attention to the extrajudicial deaths of Black women at the hands of police and vigilantes. However, Greene used the rallying cry to successfully goad President Joe Biden into saying the name Laken Riley, a nursing student from Georgia whose death is now at the center of U.S. immigration debate. But the origins of the “Say Her Name” rallying cry date back well before Greene donned the T-shirt.