Alicia Garza

Alicia Garza wrote the Facebook post that launched the Black Lives Matter movement. On July 13, 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the killing of Trayvon Martin, Garza wrote what she called "a love letter to Black people" that ended with the words: "Our lives matter, Black lives matter." Her friend Patrisse Cullors turned it into a hashtag, and Opal Tometi built the digital infrastructure. Together, they created the most significant social movement of the twenty-first century.

Born in Oakland, California, in 1981, Garza was raised by a Jewish stepfather and a Black mother in Marin County. She attended the University of California, San Diego, and became a community organizer focused on health, housing, and workers' rights. Before Black Lives Matter, she had spent years building coalitions and training organizers in the Bay Area.

Garza's vision for BLM was always broader than police violence — she saw it as a movement for the full humanity of Black people, encompassing economic justice, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and disability justice. She founded the Black Futures Lab, which conducts the largest survey of Black communities in America and uses the data to build political power. She has been named to Time's 100 Most Influential People and continues to organize at the intersection of racial justice and political power.