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What to know
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The leader of Black Lives Matter OKC was being evicted from a rental house in northeast Oklahoma City in October 2022.
Six days after the Rev. T. Sheri Amore Dickerson’s landlord filed paperwork in court to remove her from the property, she paid $121,000 to buy the 2,466-square-foot brick home on NE Grand Avenue.
Dickerson still owns the house. The property, which overlooks a busy stretch of Interstate 35, sits vacant today. There were two broken-down cars with flat tires parked on the lawn when The Frontier visited. A large window facing the front porch was shattered, exposing an interior littered with trash.
Black Lives Matter OKC didn’t have its own bank account when anti-police protests ignited across the country in May 2020. But over the course of a month, national nonprofits sent more than $5.3 million in donations to Dickerson’s small group to help post bail for Oklahoma City protesters. Dickerson began spending donated money on herself as early as June 2020, the Department of Justice alleges. Some Oklahoma City activists told The Frontier they tried to sound the alarm years ago, but nobody listened.
The U.S. Department of Justice accuses Dickerson of using the donated money to purchase the Grand Avenue home and five other properties in Oklahoma City. Dickerson allegedly spent millions donated to Black Lives Matter OKC on everything from a new SUV to beach vacations, purchases at Nordstrom, Macy’s, Amazon, Best Buy, Bob Mills Furniture and at least $50,000 on grocery and food deliveries. She is facing up to 450 years in prison and millions in fines if she is convicted on all 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. The government could also seize all of Dickerson’s real estate.
Acting on the advice of their attorneys, Dickerson and Black Lives Matter OKC declined an interview request or to respond to written questions from The Frontier. But publicly, Dickerson has said she believes the charges are politically motivated. Black Lives Matter OKC has ties to another progressive group, Alliance for Global Justice, that has also come under recent government scrutiny.
“This is quite common as far as when people who do work like we do, these are the same charges they come at you with,” Dickerson said in a Facebook live stream after the indictment was made public in December. The video has since been deleted. “I want to thank one of my sisters and mentors who said, ‘When they come against you, like they have come against so many, that is their acknowledgement — whether they want it to be or not — that you are doing good work.’”
A racial reckoning spurs millions in donations
Rage was spilling onto the streets of Oklahoma City after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. Dickerson was a charismatic community leader with a bullhorn who served on the national board of the Women’s March and spoke to local news media about racial inequality and the criminal justice system.
Black Lives Matter OKC was one of a handful of local groups that announced plans for demonstrations on social media in the days after Floyd’s death. Most of the protestors were peaceful. But police arrested some demonstrators after they poured into a busy intersection, blocking traffic. There were reports that someone set fire to an Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office van outside the jail. Some demonstrators threw themselves onto the hoods of police vehicles that attempted to respond to the scene. People threw rocks and bricks at the city’s 911 center and municipal court building.
Then-Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater took a tough stance against civil unrest, charging demonstrators with felonies including rioting, terrorism and assault and battery upon a police officer. Judges set six-figure bond amounts for demonstrators. One man’s bond was a combined $1 million for two criminal charges filed in connection with the protest.
The ACLU of Oklahoma condemned the charges against protestors as excessive and an abuse of power.
Black Lives Matter OKC soon raised more than $250,000 in online donations through Cash App and PayPal to help demonstrators make bail, according to Dickerson’s indictment.
Some people also sent donations to Dickerson’s personal account through the payment app Venmo, according to public transactions reviewed by The Frontier.
“I was crying and they were telling me it was going to be all right.”
— TYREKE BAKER, JOURNALIST ARRESTED DURING 2020 BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS
“Financial power to the people,” one Venmo donor wrote. “Thank you for fighting for us!”
As early as June 2020, Dickerson began moving tens of thousands of dollars from online donations from BLMOKC’s PayPal account to her personal PayPal account for retail purchases, travel, food, and furniture, the indictment alleges.
Black Lives Matter OKC also struck a deal for Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice to become its fiscal sponsor. The arrangement allowed the group to use Alliance for Global Justice’s status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to receive tax-deductible donations.
Alliance for Global Justice traces its roots back to efforts to raise money in the late 1970s to support socialist Sandinista revolutionaries in Nicaragua. In exchange for the use of its tax-exempt status, Alliance for Global Justice charges an 8% administrative fee on all donations to the dozens of progressive groups it sponsors.
National bail funds, including the Community Justice Exchange, Massachusetts Bail Fund, and Minnesota Freedom Fund, donated millions of dollars through Alliance for Global Justice to help Black Lives Matter OKC bail out protestors. None of the groups responded to questions from The Frontier about the donations
Black Lives Matter OKC still didn’t have its own bank account. So during the first two weeks of July 2020, Alliance for Global Justice transferred more than $3.5 million in donated funds directly into Dickerson’s personal checking account as she scrambled to post bail for demonstrators.
Dickerson made some bail payments in her name, not through Black Lives Matter OKC, court records show. And when criminal cases concluded, repayment vouchers for the bail money were in Dickerson’s name, according to court records.
Dickerson also continued to ask for Cash App and PayPal donations on social media.
Warnings from within the movement
Saxon Weber faced felony charges in connection with the May 2020 protests and said he believes he is still owed money that Black Lives Matter OKC raised through online donations to help him after his arrest. He’s still holding out hope that the group would help him pay an attorney to get his criminal case expunged.
The Frontier reached out to half a dozen protestors whom Dickerson bailed out of jail in 2020. Some didn’t respond. Others were angry that no one believed them when they raised concerns years ago.
“No disrespect to you, but I’m not willing to give anyone the slightest bit of info when no one was there to help while all this was going on and just wants a story six years later,” one demonstrator said.
Tyreke Baker was a 20-year-old independent journalist in 2020, documenting the Oklahoma City protest movement. He launched his own media company, The Black Times, and began taking photos and videos of demonstrations.
The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office charged Baker with inciting to riot after he live-streamed confrontations between police and demonstrators. A judge set his bail at $200,000.
Baker decided to turn himself in at the Oklahoma County Detention Center in July 2020 after U.S. Marshals in riot gear showed up at his mother’s house looking for him.
He said Dickerson told him Black Lives Matter OKC already had his bail money lined up. But Dickerson told him outside of the jail before he turned himself in that the money hadn’t arrived yet. She hugged him and said she was sorry, Baker said.
Dickerson then shared a photo on Facebook and asked for more donations.
“… Today young activists courageously surrender themselves to OK County
Detention Center.” Dickerson wrote. “…Rise On Young Warriors!! I am standing with you!! Cash App & Paypal $BlacklivesMatterOKC.”
Baker said he was placed in a crowded cell with three other men. He was terrified after hearing stories about people dying in the Oklahoma County jail, which was by then recognized as one of the deadliest in the nation. But his cellmates were kind, he said.
“I was crying and they were telling me it was going to be all right,” Baker said.
Dickerson posted his bond about a day and a half later. Baker and a group of four other demonstrators, called the Prater 5, later pleaded guilty to the lesser charges in exchange for probation.
“No disrespect to you, but I’m not willing to give anyone the slightest bit of info when no one was there to help while all this was going on and just wants a story six years later.”
— BLACK LIVES MATTER OKC PROTESTOR, WHO ASKED NOT TO BE IDENTIFIED
Once their criminal cases were resolved, the Prater 5 called a press conference in October 2020 and told reporters how they believed Black Lives Matter OKC had misspent money.
“They used the pain of the community to further benefit themselves,” Baker said at the press conference. “I have stayed silent on the case in fear that it may affect my case or the safety of me and my team.”
Baker also posted a detailed timeline on The Black Times website outlining how Black Lives Matter OKC had amassed millions of dollars in donations. He had witnessed much of it in real time while he reported on the Oklahoma City protest movement. There were screenshots of Dickerson’s online appeals for money. Baker also tried to work out the math of how much the group had raised and who had been bailed out of jail. He concluded that the numbers didn’t add up.
Baker said it felt like nobody believed him.
“They looked at me like I was just pulling shit out of my ass,” Baker said.
There was immediate backlash against The Black Times from people in the community, Baker said.
“People were sending us death threats,” Baker said. “People didn’t want to work with us.”
Today, he is struck by how closely the timeline he wrote in 2020 matches Dickerson’s criminal indictment.
More purchases
As demonstrators’ criminal cases were adjudicated, millions in bail payments were returned to Dickerson.
Less than three weeks after the Prater 5 press conferenceDickerson began depositing some returned bail payments into her bank account, according to the indictment. Between November 2020 and October 2024, Dickerson allegedly placed more than $3.1 million in returned bail money into her personal checking and savings accounts.
Each of the national bail funds that sent funds to Black Lives Matter OKC to free demonstrators in 2020 had conditions on how the money could be used once criminal cases were resolved. The Massachusetts Bail Fund donated $300,000 and said the Black Lives Matter OKC could keep returned bail payments to continue the group’s work. The Minnesota Freedom Fund initially wanted the $350,000 it donated to be returned after criminal cases concluded but it waived that requirement in April 2022, allowing Black Lives Matter OKC to use any remaining money to help other people who couldn’t afford bail. The Community Justice Exchange required Black Lives Matter OKC to use any of the $4.7 million in bail money that was returned to support charitable or educational work “furthering racial justice and/or ending mass incarceration.”
The Department of Justice has accused Dickerson of submitting false reports to the Alliance for Global Justice in 2021 and 2022, certifying that all funds were used for tax-exempt purposes and failing to disclose the returned bail money she deposited into her personal bank account.
Dickerson also began buying real estate and booking beach trips.
She purchased the Living Word church property in Northeast Oklahoma City for $278,000 in March 2021, putting the property in her name.
Former Living Word pastor, the Rev. Albert Poteat, met Dickerson at the closing of the sale. He thought she looked familiar. Dickerson told him he had probably recognized her from her work with Black Lives Matter OKC.
She paid cash for the property, he said. Dickerson told Poteat that she planned to turn the old church into a community hub with a food bank and counseling center, he said.
Poteat would occasionally drive by the old church. He could see signs of work being done on the building at first, but that eventually stopped.
“Nothing ever went forward,” Poteat said.
The building appears to be vacant today and was littered with trash when The Frontier visited.
The Department of Justice has accused Dickerson of using donated money to travel to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica in 2021 and 2022.
Dickerson posted vacation photos on Facebook of sunny tropical beaches with dreamy captions, repeatedly referencing the Yoruba religious concept of Àṣẹ — the divine force that flows through all things in the universe.
“Early Morning Nods….Some Mornings you just walk into the Sea…clothes on…hair down…and eyes open,” Dickerson wrote in January 2022, alongside a photo of her submerged in water, wearing a flowing purple tie-dye garment. “Some Mornings…just before daybreak…you take off all your coverings…and think to yourself….I’m Home. Ase’ I love you for real 🌊💙🖤💜”.
In the months after her trip to Jamaica, Dickerson purchased more real estate using Black Lives Matter OKC money, federal prosecutors allege. She bought a charming 988-square-foot bungalow with a stone façade in Northeast Oklahoma City for $139,000 in July 2022. Seller Sherrelyn Medice, a local real estate investor, said there was a lot of interest in the home, but Dickerson’s offer was the best because it was all in cash.
Dickerson created the company Equity International LLC in September 2022 and purchased three more homes in the Oklahoma City area — also in cash, according to the indictment.
Some of the properties Dickerson purchased appear to be unoccupied and were in various states of disrepair when The Frontier visited. But a few of the homes had vehicles parked in the driveways and other signs of life, even if nobody answered the door.
Progressive groups under fire
In August 2025, federal authorities served a search warrant on Dickerson’s home in Oklahoma City, seizing 8 cellular phones, 3 laptops, 3 tablets, and a smart
watch.
The raid came as the Trump Administration was cracking down on left-wing groups it calls domestic terrorist organizations.
In October 2025, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement had defrauded donors. Targets of the probe included the national nonprofit Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. and other organizations associated with the broader BLM movement.
Meanwhile, Alliance for Global Justice was also attracting attention from the U.S. government for another group it sponsors that the U.S. Treasury has labeled a “sham charity,” accusing it of funneling donations to a foreign terrorist organization. Samidoun, a Canada-based nonprofit, has ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been linked to bombings, murders and airplane hijackings.
Major payment platforms stopped processing credit card donations for Alliance for Global in 2023 because of the nonprofit’s affiliation with Samidoun.
The deplatforming affected online donations to about 140 groups Alliance for Global Justice sponsored at the time, including Black Lives Matter OKC.
Black Lives Matter OKC still has a message on its website stating that it can no longer process online donations and directing donors to pay by check.
Alliance for Global Justice did not respond to interview requests or written questions.
On its website, the group blamed right-wing media for “false and dangerous accusations” that led to its ban from payment platforms.
U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, has repeatedly called on the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of Alliance for Global Justice because of its connections to Samidoun.
The IRS said it couldn’t legally provide any information about Alliance for Global Justice’s tax status, but its online nonprofit verification tool shows the group is still eligible to receive charitable donations
Classified information
Dickerson is scheduled for trial in December. She told the court she had no money to hire an attorney and is being represented by a public defender.
Dickerson’s criminal case is expected to touch on matters of national security.
Federal prosecutors asked a judge earlier this month to create procedures to protect classified information.
“The United States anticipates that issues relating to classified information will arise in connection with this case due to uncharged conduct by the Defendant, the investigation of which may have resulted in discoverable information,” the government said in a March 2 court filing.
The first round of evidence in the case included more than 150,000 documents and audio-visual files, including dozens of terabytes of pole camera footage, recorded interviews and records procured through four search warrants served on electronic service providers and 70 subpoenas.
“The parties agree this is a complex case that has been under investigation by the Government for years,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing in January.
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Brianna Bailey was hired by The Frontier in 2018 and became the outlet’s Managing Editor in 2021. Her hobbies are baking and crashing meetings she isn’t invited to attend. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Oklahoma.
Email her at brianna@readfrontier.com
