In a powerful exploration of recent racial history, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter - and one of the BBC’s Women of 2020 - examines the moment we’re in, how we got here, and how together we can build movements to create a just and equal world. Now with a new Afterword.

Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag when Alicia Garza wrote what she
calls ‘a love letter to Black people’ on Facebook. But hashtags don’t
build movements, she tells us. People do. Interwoven with Garza’s
experience of life as a Black woman, The Purpose of Power is the
story of how she responded to the persistent message that Black lives
are of less value than white lives by galvanizing people to create
change. It’s an insight into grass roots organizing to deliver basic
needs - affordable housing, workplace protections, access to good
education - to those locked out of the economy by racism. It is an
attempt not only to make sense of where Black Lives Matter came from but
also to understand the possibilities that Black Lives Matter and
movements like it hold for our collective futures. Ultimately, it’s an
appeal to hearts and minds, demanding that we think about our privileges
and prejudices and ask how we might contribute to the change we want to see in the world.