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Alicia Garza

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Alicia Garza
Born (1981-03-04) March 4, 1981 (age 43)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Activist, writer
Known forBlack Lives Matter, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Alicia Garza (born March 4, 1981) is an 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,[1] The Nation,[2] The Feminist Wire,[3] 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.[4][5]

Activism

Black Lives Matter

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.[6] 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.[7] Garza has been praised for being a queer woman with a bi-racial transgender spouse, bringing together diverse groups of people for the cause.[8]

Other work

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.[9] 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.[10]

Act of protest

Garza participated in an attempt to stop a Bay Area Rapid Transit train for four and a half hours, a time chosen to reflect the time that Michael Brown's body was left in the street after he was killed. The protesters stopped the train for an hour and a half by chaining themselves both to the inside of the train and the outside, making it impossible for the door to close. The disruption lasted for an hour and a half. It ended only when police removed the protestors by dismantling part of the train.[11]

Recognition and awards

Garza was recognized on the Root 100 list of African American Achievers between the ages of 25 and 45. She was also recognized on the Politico50 2015 guide to Thinkers, Doers, and Visionaries along with Cullors and Tometi.

Garza has received the Local Hero award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She has been twice awarded by the Harvey Milk Democratic Club the Bayard Rustin Community Activist Award for her work fighting racism and gentrification in San Francisco. She has also been awarded the Jeanne Gauna Communicate Justice Award from the Centre for Media Justice.[12]

In 2015, Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi (as "The Women of #BlackLivesMatter") were among the nine runners-up for The Advocate's Person of the Year.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Profile Alicia Garza". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  2. ^ "Author Alicia Garza". The Nation. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  3. ^ Garza, Alicia. "A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement". The Feminist Wire. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  4. ^ Dalton, Deron. "The Three Women Behind the Black Lives Matter Movement". Madame Noire. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  5. ^ "Meet the woman who coined #BlackLivesMatter". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  6. ^ Day, Elizabeth. "#BlackLivesMatter: The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  7. ^ Pleasant, Liz. "Meet the Woman Behind #BlackLivesMatter – the Hashtag that Became a Civil Rights Movement". Yes Magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  8. ^ Pleasant, Liz. "Meet the Woman Behind #BlackLivesMatter – The Hashtag that Became a Civil Rights Movement". Yes Magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  9. ^ Pleasant, Liz. "Meet the Woman Behind #BlackLives Matter – The Hashtag that Became a Civil Rights Movement". Yes Magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  10. ^ "Board About". Forward Together. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  11. ^ Smith, Heather. "Meet the BART-stopping Woman Behind "Black Lives Matter". Grist Magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  12. ^ "Alicia Garza Selected as Communities Choice for Grand Marshal". San Francisco Pride. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  13. ^ Advocate.com Editors. "Person of the Year: The Finalists". Advocate.com. Retrieved November 6, 2015. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
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