Alicia Garza facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alicia Garza
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Garza in 2016
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| Born | January 4, 1981 Oakland, California, U.S.
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| Other names | Alicia Schwartz |
| Education | University of California, San Diego (BA) |
| Occupation | Activist |
| Known for | Black Lives Matter, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, National Domestic Workers Alliance |
| Movement | Black Lives Matter, Movement for Black Lives |
| Spouse(s) |
Malachi Garza
(m. 2008; div. 2021) |
Alicia Garza (born January 4, 1981) is an American civil rights activist and writer. She is most famous for co-founding the Black Lives Matter movement. A civil rights activist is someone who works to make sure all people have equal rights and are treated fairly.
Garza is a powerful voice for social and racial justice. She focuses on helping groups of people who are often overlooked, such as Black women, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants. She is also a writer and public speaker. Her articles about race, gender, and fairness have appeared in many famous publications like Time, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone.
She has worked with important groups like the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Black Futures Lab. These organizations work to give Black communities more power to make positive changes.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Alicia Garza was born in Oakland, California. When she was growing up, her family ran an antiques business.
Garza started her work as an activist when she was only 12 years old. She supported health education programs in her school. When she went to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), she continued to stand up for others. She worked to get better pay for the university's janitors.
In her last year of college, she helped organize the first Women of Color Conference at UCSD in 2002. She graduated that same year with a degree in anthropology and sociology.
Career in Activism
Early Organizing Work
After college, Garza returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003. She joined a program called the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). SOUL taught young people of color how to become community organizers. Organizers help people work together to solve problems in their neighborhoods.
She then worked with groups like Just Cause Oakland and People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO). With PUEBLO, she helped community members in East Oakland speak out against a large new store they felt would harm local businesses.
Later, Garza worked with an organization called People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER). She fought for better public housing and transportation for people in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.
Co-founding Black Lives Matter
Garza, along with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, started the Black Lives Matter hashtag and movement. The idea came to Garza in 2013 after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager.
After the verdict, Garza wrote a post on Facebook that said, "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter... Our lives matter." Her friend Patrisse Cullors then shared the post with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. The phrase quickly spread online. Garza said that Trayvon Martin reminded her of her own younger brother, and she felt that what happened to Trayvon could have happened to him.
The Black Lives Matter movement grew larger after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. The movement works to bring attention to the unfair treatment of Black people and to fight for justice and equality.
In 2015, Garza helped lead the "Freedom Ride to Ferguson." This event helped create Black Lives Matter groups across the United States and around the world. Garza sees the movement as a continuation of the long history of Black people fighting for their rights in America.
Other Projects
In 2020, Garza started a podcast where she talks about politics and other topics.
She also wrote a book called The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, which was published in 2020. In the book, she shares her story as an activist and gives advice to others who want to make a change in the world. She wrote, "My experience with BLM toughened my skin and softened my heart...it taught me how to recommit to work that broke my heart every day."
Political Work
Garza has worked to get more people involved in politics and to make sure everyone's voice is heard.
Supermajority
In 2019, Garza co-founded an organization called Supermajority with Cecile Richards and Ai-jen Poo. The group's goal is to bring women together to become a powerful force in politics. Supermajority works to train women to be organizers and activists. It focuses on important issues like voting rights, equal pay, and paid family leave.
Black Futures Lab
In 2018, Garza started the Black Futures Lab. This organization works to build political power in Black communities. Its first major project was the Black Census Project. It was the largest survey of Black people in the United States since the 1800s. The survey asked questions about politics, experiences with racism, and what their communities need. The goal is to use this information to create policies that help Black communities succeed.
Awards and Recognition
Alicia Garza has received many awards for her work.
- She was named one of the most influential African Americans by The Root magazine.
- Politico magazine included her, Cullors, and Tometi on its 2015 list of important thinkers and visionaries.
- She has won awards from the Harvey Milk Democratic Club for her work fighting racism in San Francisco.
- In 2017, she, Cullors, and Tometi received the Sydney Peace Prize.
- In 2020, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.
- She was also included on the BBC's list of 100 inspiring women in 2020.
Personal Life
Garza was married to Malachi Garza, who is also a community activist, from 2008 to 2021. They lived and worked in Oakland, California.
She has a tattoo on her chest with a quote from the poet June Jordan: "I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name. My name is my own my own my own." For Garza, this quote connects her work with the deep history and culture of African Americans.
See also
In Spanish: Alicia Garza para niños
