Alicia Garza - The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

The Purpose of Power is a must-read for those who want a better understanding of the current state of Black America. This book highlights the work necessary not only to transform the conscience of our nation but also to disrupt the policies that contribute to systemic racism so we can successfully build a country where Black lives matter. Alicia Garza has created a guidebook for building coalitions to bring about transformational change. By combining activism with electoral politics, she is reflecting the influence of the strength and brilliance of her late mother, who I know is smiling down from on high with pride and love. As we face challenging times in our nation, anyone interested in turning the page of our contemptible past toward a brighter future should put this book on their reading list.

C ONGRESSWOMAN B ARBARA L EE

Alicia Garza has articulated the aspiration of generations of Black people to be valued, protected, respected, and free. This beautiful, important, and timely memoir is insightful, compelling, and necessary in this critical moment of reckoning with our history.

B RYAN S TEVENSON , author of Just Mercy

Black lives matter was Alicia Garzas love letter read around the world. The Purpose of Power is another love letter that should be read around the world. It speaks to all that molded Garza, all that molds organizers, all that molds movements. It is story. It is lesson. It is power.

I BRAM X . K ENDI , author of How to Be an Antiracist

Damn. The Purpose of Power changes everything. I suppose I shouldnt be shocked at this books audacity, because its written by a young Black woman who literally changed everything. But the art of building a movement and the art of building a textured book to chronicle and guide future movements are wholly different endeavors. Somehowand I think the how is in the way the sentences and chapters put pressure on yesterday and tomorrowAlicia Garza has written a book that is more dynamic, daring, and rigorous than the most expansive movement of my lifetime, a movement she helped create and sustain. Very few books become national monuments. Even fewer help shape social movements. The Purpose of Power is that rare book that is a monumental movement. It is a liberatory offering. Damn.

K IESE L AYMON , author of Heavy

Alicia Garza is an originator, the driving force behind one of the most powerful, motivating, and game-changing symbols we have ever seen in the realm of social changethe proud and defiant symbol of Black Lives Matter. It should be no surprise that the person behind this strategy has a lifetime of experience, insight, inspiration, and learning behind her. I have always benefited from Garzas insight. Now The Purpose of Power lets everyone in: How MTV shaped her understanding of the power of culture to win where politics cant do it alone. How Black power starts with Black community. How the difference between feeling powerful and being powerful is the difference between seeing our potential and realizing itthe difference between dreaming of freedom and winning freedom. Garza offers a practical guide to one of the most impractical fights of our time: making racial justice a reality.

R ASHAD R OBINSON , president of Color of Change

In this magnificent and engaging text, Alicia Garza deftly combines revealing personal memoir, thorough social history, astute political theory, and pragmatic strategic advice. Through this exquisite narrative, Garza shows why she is a singular figure of her generationa generation about which everyone was convinced, she writes, that there was something inherently wrong with us. Combining personal and national history, Garza reveals all that is right about a generation forged in the fire of the Clinton-era carceral state and coming of age in the era of Obama-enforced respectability. Refusing to romanticize any moment or movement, Garza explains both the why and the how of meaningful, impactful organizing for and with black communities. Never cruel but unflinchingly honest, Garza analyzes the external and internal opponents that have marked Black peoples long struggle for justice in this country. She teaches clearly, corrects lovingly, demands boldly, and proceeds fearlessly to fight for the lives of all Black people. This is a text everyone needs to read, to discuss, to debate, to challenge, and to absorb. Alicia Garza is our Ella Baker.

M ELISSA H ARRIS- P ERRY , Maya Angelou Presidential Chair and professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University

In the difficult work of building movements, one of our most important resources is leadership, the people who hold the lanterns, light the path, and serve as our guides through the darkness. I can think of no greater guide than Alicia Garza and no greater tome of wisdom for this age than The Purpose of Power, a precious offering to a nation navigating unprecedented crises, for whom movements remain our only saving grace.

A I-JEN P OO , executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and author of The Age of Dignity

Like the movement she launched into the world, Alicia Garzas book will pull you in, break your heart, and make it bigger all at once. The Purpose of Power cements Garza as a generational leader whose unflinching yet generous wisdom will shape our approach to activism for years to come.

H EATHER M C G HEE , author of The Sum of Us

With The Purpose of Power, Alicia Garza has provided us simultaneously with a necessary political history, an expansive theory of liberation, and a personal testament to the power of movement building. If we are serious about the work of dismantling all the systems of oppression that have caused pain and suffering for generations, we would do well to listen as Garza helps guide us to greater understanding and faith in our prospects for revolutionary change.

M YCHAL D ENZEL S MITH , author of Stakes Is High

Moving a jaded populace from spectators to strategists is not for the faint of heart, but Alicia Garza knows how to do it. With eloquence, intimacy, and electric clarity, Black Lives Matter co-founder Garza has delivered a dynamic story of how a multiracial, Black-led movement for rights and dignity came of age. Accessible and hands on, The Purpose of Power is part generous autobiography, part manual for building multiracial coalitions and political majorities strong enough to overcome anti-Black racism in the modern era. The book reveals Garza as not only a superb strategist but a master storyteller, breaking down complex narratives of displacement, police violence, and worker disenfranchisement to serve up the incredible blend of movement building know-how and community organizing how-to that todays generation of activists desperately needs.

Make no mistake, Garzas words are no ride-along. Every page resuscitates the reader, dashes our myths about how change happens, and invites us into the simple but powerful truth that at the end of the day, the future will be built by people. From the streets to the battlefields of popular culture, news, and the Internet, The Purpose of Power delivers wisdom for the seasoned organizer and an incredible story for the impassioned newbie. This layered book is for anyone who understands that surviving with dignity is a practice, but fighting for both dignity and survival is a skill. From end to end, Garza honors the political moment, the new and diverse leadership, all the while reminding us of this simple truth: Hashtags dont build movements, people do.