Tamika Mallory
Tamika Danielle Mallory (born September 4, 1980[1]) is an American activist. She was one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women's March, for which she and her three other co-chairs were recognized in the TIME 100 that year.[3][4] She received the Coretta Scott King Legacy Award from the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom in 2018.[5] Mallory is a proponent of gun control, feminism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Tamika Mallory
Personal life[edit]
Mallory was born in Harlem, a neighborhood of New York City's Manhattan borough, to Stanley and Voncile Mallory.[2] She grew up in the Manhattanville Houses in Manhattan and moved to Co-op City in the Bronx when she was 14.[6] Her parents were activists and founding members of Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN), a leading civil rights organization throughout the United States.[7] Their work in NAN influenced Mallory and her interests in social justice and civil rights. Mallory became a staff member of NAN when she was 15 years old[7] and later was named its executive director in 2009.[8]
Mallory is a single mother to her son Tarique.[6] Her son's father, Jason Ryans, was murdered in 2001.[9] Mallory explains that her experience with NAN taught her to react to this tragedy with activism. Her son is a member of NAN.[10]
In 2018, Mallory drew criticism for her attendance at an event with, and past praise for, controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, which prompted calls for her resignation from the 2019 Women's March.[11][12][13][14][15] Following later allegations of antisemitism, Mallory left the organization in September 2019.[16]