An essential guide to building transformative movements to address
the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading
organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter
In 2013, Alicia
Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on
Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered
seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote:
Black people. I
love you. I love us. Our lives matter.
With the speed and
networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the
hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that
hashtags don’t start movements—people do.
Long before
#BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza
had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some
hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different
from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations
of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of
the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how
making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can
inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all
deserve.
This is the story of
one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to
create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new
generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the
most important movements of our time.
