Tarana J. Burke has been working at the intersection of racial justice, arts and culture, anti-violence and gender equity for nearly three decades, fueled by a commitment to interrupt systemic issues disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly sexual violence against Black women and girls, creating and leading campaigns that have brought awareness to the harmful legacies surrounding communities of color while increasing access to resources and support for survivors. A proud native of the Bronx, NY, Burke’s passion for community organizing began in the late 1980s when as a young girl she joined 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, leading and participating in initiatives around police brutality, housing inequality and economic justice before attending Alabama State University, a historically Black institution, where her organizing and advocacy work continued throughout college and remains a pillar of her professional life. Her career took an intentional turn toward supporting survivors of sexual violence while living in Selma, Alabama working for 21st Century, where she encountered dozens of Black girls with stories of sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation—stories with which she personally identified as a survivor—realizing too many girls were trying their best to survive without access to resources, safe spaces and support, leading her to create Just Be, Inc. in 2003 (formally launched with its first grant in 2007), an organization committed to the empowerment and wellness of Black girls, with the ‘me too.’ Movement born in 2006 as an entry to healing for survivors and a mechanism for developing survivor leaders. In 2017, when ‘me too.’ as a hashtag (#metoo) went viral following the Harvey Weinstein allegations, Burke emerged as a global leader in the evolving conversation around sexual violence, placing the focus back on survivors and the need for survivor-centered, survivor-led solutions, with her theory of “empowerment through empathy” changing the way the world thinks and talks about sexual violence, consent and bodily autonomy, touching and inspiring millions of survivors who previously lived with the pain, shame and trauma of their experience in isolation. In 2018, Burke founded ‘me too.’ International, a global non-profit organization serving as convener, innovator, thought leader, and organizer across mainstream and grassroots communities to address systems that allow for the proliferation of sexual violence, specifically in Black, queer, trans, disabled, and all communities of color, while authoring two instant New York Times bestsellers: “Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement” (2021) and “You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience” (co-authored with Brené Brown, 2021). Burke’s steadfast commitment led to numerous accolades, including 2017 TIME Person of the Year, 2018 TIME 100 Most Influential People, the 2019 Sydney Peace Prize and Harvard Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award, and being named one of USA Today’s Women of the Century in 2020.
Why their voice matters: Burke created a global movement from grassroots organizing with Black girls in Selma, demonstrating that addressing sexual violence requires survivor-centered, survivor-led solutions grounded in empowerment through empathy rather than shame, while insisting that healing pathways and leadership development for survivors—particularly for Black women and girls and communities of color—must be prioritized as essential social justice work that transforms how society understands consent, bodily autonomy, and the pervasiveness of sexual violence across all communities.