Good afternoon, students and staff of Red Rock Job Corps, my name is Alicia Garza. I am 39 years old, born on January 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. I currently livinglive in Oakland, California. I am a civil rights activist and writer. I am mixed-raced, with my father being Whitewhite and Jewish and my mother being black. I graduated from the University of California in San Diego with a degree in anthropology and sociology in 2002. I work around different issues that involve health, student services, rights for domestic workers, and violence against trans and gender-nonconforming people of color. Furthermore, I am a co-founder of one of the biggest organizations in the 21st century, known as Black Lives Matter Organizations. This organization has begunwas formed in 2013 along with my dear friends Patrisse Khan-Cullors (pronounce: con-colors) and Opal Tometi (pronounce: Toe-met-tea).
I was the first person to use the phrase “Black Lives Matter” in 2012 on Facebook. On February 26, 2012, a young man named Trayvon Martin was, a person of color at the age ofaged 17, has beenwas shot by his neighborhood security guard. Trayvon was unarmed andbut still has died bydue to this unnecessary shooting. Trayvon was put on trial for his own murder, while the murderer was held not accountable for the murder he has donehad committed, because he was Caucasian. I took my frustration and anger to Facebook like most of us do, and at the very end, I wrote, “Black Lives Matter” at the end of it. My friend Patrisse is the one thatwho told me to put the hashtag in front of Black Lives Matter. This is when it blew up on social media, people coming together agreeing that we needed to fix police brutality, racial inequality, and social justiceinjustice.