Alicia Garza Biography
Alicia Garza is an American civil rights activist and writer known for co-founding the international Black Lives Matter movement. She has organized around issues of health, student services, and rights, rights for domestic workers, and ending police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people of color.
Garza’s editorial writing has been published by The Guardian, The Nation, Rolling Stone, and also Truthout. Currently, she directs special projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and is the Principal at Black Futures Lab.
Alicia attended the University of California, San Diego. She worked at the student health center and joined the student association, calling for higher pay for the university’s janitors. During her final year at the university, Garza helped to organize the first Women of Color Conference, a university-wide convocation held at UCSD in 2002. She graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology.
In 2003, Garza returned to the Bay Area, where she began a training program in political education with the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). She then began working with Just Cause Oakland, where she met her former partner, Malachi Garza, a transgender man, and a community activist. After completing her internship at SOUL, she joined People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO), a campaign that researches relationships between increasing economic security for people of color and increased community security.
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In addition, after Alicia left PUEBLO, she joined the UC Student Association for a year, promoting activism to university students. In 2005, she joined People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in Bayview-Hunters Point. Later on, she joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance, creating a program on Black Domestic Workers. After a short period of time, she founded Black Lives Matter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Moreover, on April 10, 2020, Alicia debuted her podcast, Lady Don’t Take No, which is a tribute to the Bay Area, where she discusses political commentary with a side of beauty recommendations.
In addition, Alicia is an author. Her first book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, was published in October 2020 by Penguin Random House. Described as “an essential guide,” the book tells Garza’s story as an activist and shares lessons for future activists.
Alicia Garza Age
How old is Alicia Garza? Garza is 42 years old as of January 2023. She was born on January 4, 1981, in Oakland, California, in the United States of America. In addition, she celebrates her birthday on the 4th of January every year.
Alicia Garza Family
Garza was born in Oakland, California to a single mother. She spent her first four years in San Rafael, living with her African American mother and her mother’s twin brother. After that, she lived with her mother and her Jewish stepfather. Alicia grew up as Alicia Schwartz in a mixed-race and mixed-religious household. In addition, she identifies herself as Jewish.
In addition, the family lived first in San Rafael and then Tiburon and ran an antique business, assisted later by her brother Joey, eight years her junior. When Alicia was twelve years old, she got involved in activism, promoting school sex education about birth control.
On March 28, 2018, Alicia announced, “I wish this was a better update. Mom has a glioblastoma—a very aggressive brain tumor. The cancer cells have spread all over her brain” via her Instagram page. However, a month later on April 30, 2018, she said, “Mom passed away peacefully earlier today, surrounded by her family. I was holding her hand when she died…”
Alicia Garza Husband
Garza was happily married to her ex-husband, Malachi Garza. The two met during a blockage at the Bay Bridge in 2003, when Alicia spotted Malachi doing a security role. Through that same network, a few weeks later, Garza receives an email about the SOUL. When she showed up for her interview, her interviewer, Malachi, was forty minutes late. As Garza said at the 2016 YBCA 100 Summit, “a twenty-minute interview turned into a four-hour conversation. I remember leaving there and saying, ‘I met my soulmate.”
Moreover, in 2004, Alicia came out as queer to her family. Alicia and Malachi tied the knot in 2008, and she took the name Garza. However, in September 2021, Alicia announced that the two had ended their relationship after 17 years.
Alicia Garza Tattoo
Garza has a tattoo emblazoned on her chest. The lines are from the final lines of June Jordan’s Poem About My Rights The tattoo reads:
I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on my resistance
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
may very well cost you your life.
Alicia Garza Height
Garza stands at an approximate height of 5 feet 7 inches tall.
Alicia Garza Net Worth
Garza has an estimated net worth of around $5 million as of 2023. Her income is mainly attributed to her career as an activist.
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