Alicia Garza
| Alicia Garza | |
|---|---|
Garza in 2016
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| Born |
January 4, 1981 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Residence | Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Activist, writer |
| Known for | Black Lives Matter, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, National Domestic Workers Alliance |
Alicia Garza (born January 4, 1981) is an African American activist and editorial writer who lives in Oakland, California. She has organized around the issues of health, student services and rights, rights for domestic workers, ending police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against trans and gender non-conforming people of color. Her editorial writing has been published by The Guardian,The Nation, The Feminist Wire, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post and truthout.org. She currently directs Special Projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She also co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement.
Garza, with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, birthed the Black Lives Matters movement. Garza is credited with inspiring the slogan when, after the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, she posted on Facebook: "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, Black Lives Matter" which Cullors then shared with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Garza's organization Black Lives Matter was spurred on by the deaths of black people by police in recent media and racial disparities within the U.S. criminal justice system. She was also struck by the similarities of Trayvon Martin to her younger brother, feeling that it could have been him killed instead. Garza led the 2015 Freedom Ride to Ferguson, organized by Cullors and Darnell Moore that launched the building of BlackLivesMatter chapters across the United States. Garza self-identifies as a queer woman, and her spouse is biracial and transgender; Garza draws on all of these experiences in her organizing and activism.
Previously, Garza had served as the director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her time in the position, she won the right for youth to use public transportation for free in San Francisco and also fought gentrification and exposing police brutality in the area. Garza is on the board of directors of Forward Together's Oakland California branch and is also involved with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity.
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