An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 06/01/2025
(fifth anniversary of the start of this project)
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"Intersectionality asks us to examine the places where we are marginalized but it also demands that we examine how and why those of us who are marginalized can in turn exercise marginalization over others. It demands that we do better by one another so that we can be more powerful together."
At the five-year mark of the start of this project, and also at the start of Pride Month, I can think of no-one more appropriate to talk about than organizer, author, and activist Alicia Garza, one of the original coiners of the phrase Black Lives Matter.
Born in 1981 Oakland, Garza grew up hyper-aware of social injustice issues and became actively involved in activism at the age of twelve, beginning with promotion of improved sex education and better access to birth control. She graduated from University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2002 with a degree in anthropology and sociology; in her final year at that institution she founded the first Women of Color Conference. She would later become a member --and eventually serve on the board of directors of-- the Oakland-based School of Liberation and Unity (SOUL).
On July 13, 2013, after the heartbreaking acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer, Garza took to Facebook and posted an essay titled A Love Letter to Black People. In it she opines: "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter... stop giving up on Black life." She added, "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." A mutual friend, Opal Tometi, reshared the essay with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter, and the phrase quickly grew into a national call to action, arguably becoming the most well-known civil rights refrain since Black Power. Instances of the hashtag spiked in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, again after Eric Garner's murder in New York, and of course in the wake of George Floyd's death. Garza, along with cofounders Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, formally launched the Black Lives Matter Movement, with its stated aim of addressing violence towards Black Americans --particularly by law enforcement-- and pushing back against the inherent, embedded racism that lies at the core of such issues as generational poverty and mass incarceration.
Today Garza is a director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), an advocacy organization for the rights and working conditions of domestic housekeepers. She has written countless articles for many magazines and periodicals on the subjects of queer activism and social justice, and is the author of The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart (October 2020, One World publishing). In 2016 she was included in Fortune magazine's prestigious "50 of the Most Influential World Leaders" list. Among the many awards Garza has received for her work include the Local Hero award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Harvey Milk Democratic Club's Bayard Rustin Community Activist Award (which she has in fact now won twice). And there are approximately 13 trillion more brilliant accomplishments that are well beyond the scope of my mere trading card biography, so perhaps it's more appropriate if Garza were to simply speak about them to you directly:
Five years of doing this, now. Printed versions of these trading card sets have by now found their way into a fair number of schools' curricula around the country (including several states where the actual teaching of such subjects runs afoul of local law), one gallery, several guest lectures, a couple of podcasts and even an awards ceremony, and there are plans for further appearances in the coming year, to help improve folks' understanding of history --and also to understand just how damned much erasure has taken place over the centuries. Back in the summer of 2020, I sincerely thought I might reach 35, perhaps 40 biographies to showcase, and that would quietly be the end of it... since obviously the nationwide post-George Floyd reckoning would have by then finally brought about some real, substantive change. [sigh]
Instead, I never stop running out of Black lives to study and share (seriously, you should see my to-do list), and with each new "Gee I Never Knew That" discovery that is made, the angrier I get.
So... more to come. Always more to come. Alicia Garza certainly isn't giving up, so neither will I.
Next lesson - Lesson 191: Opal Lee