Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke created the "Me Too" movement in 2006 — a full eleven years before it became a global phenomenon. As a community organizer in Selma, Alabama, Burke began using the phrase "Me Too" to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color, know that they were not alone. When actress Alyssa Milano amplified the hashtag in 2017 during the Harvey Weinstein revelations, Burke's decade of quiet work became the foundation for one of the most powerful social movements of the twenty-first century.

Born in the Bronx in 1973, Burke was a survivor of sexual violence herself — an experience that drove her lifelong commitment to helping other survivors. She worked as a community organizer and youth worker for decades before founding Just Be Inc., a nonprofit focused on the health, well-being, and wholeness of young women of color.

Burke's insistence that Me Too was always about ordinary survivors — not celebrities — kept the movement grounded even as it consumed the entertainment industry. She was named one of Time's Persons of the Year (as one of "The Silence Breakers") and has continued advocating for survivors through speaking, writing, and organizing. Her memoir, Unbound, was published in 2021. She has been clear that the movement she started was about healing, not punishment — about giving voice to the voiceless, not tearing down the powerful.