Tamika Mallory

Tamika Danielle Mallory (born September 4, 1980) is an African-American feminist, black nationalist, and pro-gun control political activist. She is the co-president of the Women's March, which was founded to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. From 2009 to 2013, she was the executive director of MSNBC commentator Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Mallory is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, a revolutionary "anti-racist" organization.

Mallory has a longstanding association with Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, who has been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League as the "leading anti-Semite" in the United States.

National Action Network

Mallory was born in New York City. Her parents were founding members of Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN). She became a member of NAN at the age of 11, only three years after Sharpton created controversy in the Tawana Brawley case. By 1991, when Al Sharpton gained notoriety for his antisemitism in the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the young Mallory was under Sharpton's tutelage at NAN. Four years later, Sharpton helped incite further race riots against Jews, resulting in street deaths during the "Freddy's Fashion Mart Massacre".

Relationship with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam

In February 2018, Mallory attended a speech given by Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, in Chicago, Illinois, in which Farrakhan called Jews "children of the devil" and members of the "Synagogue of Satan." While no formal attempt at an explanation was made by Women's March, Inc., Mallory engaged with critics on social media about the matter. On Twitter, she posted: "If your leader does not have the same enemies as Jesus, they may not be THE leader!"

Shortly before Mallory was to be the keynote speaker at a June 2018 event in Australia, the organization cancelled her appearance following protests from Jewish organizations regarding two recent statements by Mallory. After returning from a trip to Israel, Mallory declared the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 to be a "human rights crime."

During April 2018, Mallory accused the Anti-Defamation League of racial bias. The ADL had been enlisted by Starbucks to assist the company in a nationwide sensitivity training, following a controversy that had arisen when a Philadelphia store manager called police on two black men in the store. Mallory condemned the company's selection of the Jewish organization as one of its training groups. "Starbucks was on a decent track until they enlisted the Anti Defamation League to build their anti-bias training," said Mallory in a Twitter statement calling for a boycott of Starbucks. "The ADL is CONSTANTLY attacking black and brown people." In follow-up comments she stated: "The ADL sends US police to Israel to learn their military practices. This is deeply troubling. Let’s not even talk abt their attacks against .@blacklivesmatter." Starbucks had also sought guidance from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Noted speakers and participants at the January 2019 Women's March events included progressive Democratic politicians such as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Representative Ayanna Pressley, Representative Barbara Lee and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

See also

• Great Awokening