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

An essential guide to building the type of movements that can address the challenges of our time, from one of the country's leading organizers — one of the creators of Black Lives Matter.

In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she calls "a love letter to Black people" on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered 17-year old Trayvon Martin. She wrote:

Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.

Coupled with the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter is the hashtag heard round the world. But Garza knew that hashtags don't start movements — people do.

Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza has spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about how to come together when things around us are falling apart. The lessons she offers are different from the "rules for radicals" that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American Civil Rights Movement. From this, she offers reflections on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still waking can inspire and activate more and more people to join the fight for the world we all deserve.

This is the story of one woman's lessons from years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.

"'Black lives matter' was Alicia Garza's 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." Ibram X. Kendi, author of #1 New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist

"Damn. The Purpose of Power changes everything. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at this book's audacity, because it's written a young Black woman who literally changed everything. 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." Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"The Purpose of Power is a necessary political history, an expansive theory of liberation, and a personal testament to the power of movement building. Garza helps guide us to greater understanding and faith in our prospects for revolutionary change." Mychal Denzel Smith, author of Stakes Is High

Alicia Garza founded the Black Futures Lab to make Black communities powerful in politics. In 2018, the Black Futures Lab conducted the Black Census Project — the largest survey of Black communities in over 150 years.

Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve — to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. An innovator, strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, she is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international organizing project to end state violence and oppression against Black people. The Black Lives Matter Global Network now has 40 chapters in 4 countries.

Alicia serves as the Strategy & Partnerships Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation’s premier voice for millions of domestic workers in the United States. She is also the co-founder of Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism. She shares her thoughts on politics and pop culture on her podcast, Lady Don't Take No.

Garza was born and raised in the Bay Area, lives and loves in Oakland, California, and she warns you — hashtags don’t start movements. People do.