Biography
Tamika Mallory is an American community organizer. She was named executive director of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in 2009, was one of four national co-chairs of the Women’s March on Washington held on 21 January 2017, and co-founded the advocacy organization Until Freedom.
National Action Network
A National Action Network press release dated 23 July 2009 announced that Al Sharpton had named Mallory the organization’s executive director, an appointment the release says was made on 12 June 2009. The same release states she had been on NAN’s national staff since 2001, beginning as a press and public relations associate under the organization’s media director Rachel Noerdlinger, then working as a lead events planner, and later coordinating NAN’s Social Justice Ministry and directing its Decency Initiative — a programme the release says was organized in the wake of the Don Imus episode involving the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. It also notes that Ebony had named her among thirty influential national leaders under thirty.
NAN’s own press releases record her work in the role. On 25 October 2011, identified as National Executive Director, she appeared on NY1’s Inside City Hall to discuss gun-smuggling charges brought against New York police officers, saying that “when the department is asking for community help in turning in offenders, it makes it very hard to tell the community to talk to the cops” when officers are themselves involved in illegal activity. In June 2012 she and the NAACP’s Marvin Bing led a walk through Harlem to publicise a Father’s Day silent march down Fifth Avenue against stop-and-frisk policing, organized by NAN, the NAACP, 1199 SEIU and a coalition the release describes as more than 115 organizations; the walk was followed by a vigil with the family of Ramarley Graham. In July 2012 she appeared with Shianne Norman, mother of four-year-old Lloyd Morgan, who had been fatally shot at a Bronx basketball game, to announce funeral arrangements and hold a vigil. The sources consulted here do not fix the date she left the executive director role.
Women’s March
Fortune’s 2017 “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list placed Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland and Carmen Perez at rank 34 under the title “National Cochairs” of the Women’s March on Washington. Fortune’s entry says the four organized the march in barely two months; that an original estimate of 250,000 attendees was exceeded by a Washington crowd it describes as reaching nearly half a million; that with simultaneous marches in hundreds of cities the worldwide total approached five million; and that the co-chairs launched a follow-on effort called 10 Actions/100 Days, a hub through which people could find nearby protests and other events. The same four were named to the 2017 TIME 100 in an entry written by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who described them as “four extraordinary women” and “the suffragists of our time.”
On 16 September 2019 the Women’s March announced that Mallory, Bland and Sarsour would transition off its board, and named seventeen incoming board members, among them Carmen Perez-Jordan, who remained with the organization. In a statement to CNN the organization said it “has not cut ties with the three departing board members; their terms have ended,” and called the three “instrumental” to its accomplishments.
CNN reported that the group’s leadership had faced criticism over its association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — an organization CNN notes the Southern Poverty Law Center designates a hate group — and over allegations of anti-Semitism, which CNN says the founders deny. According to CNN, Mallory and Perez each posted photographs of themselves with Farrakhan; Mallory attended a February 2018 event at which Farrakhan spoke and did not denounce him afterwards, while the Women’s March issued a statement distancing itself from him. CNN also reports that Teresa Shook, who initiated the original march, later called for the four co-chairs to step down, and that Vanessa Wruble told the New York Times her Jewish heritage played a role in her being pushed out of the organization — an account Mallory and Perez disputed to that paper. These are the characterizations of the cited reporting and of the participants, not of this project.
Until Freedom
Until Freedom Inc is a 501(c)(4) organization registered in Baldwin Place, New York, under EIN 84-2924235. Its earliest IRS return is a Form 990-EZ for fiscal year 2019 reporting $346 in revenue and listing Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Mysonne Linen as directors. The about-the-author copy of Mallory’s own book, transcribed in her Library of Congress name-authority record, describes her as a co-founder of Until Freedom.
The organization’s reported revenue rose sharply in 2020, to 460,000 and $1.4 million a year. Mallory is listed as a director for 2019 and 2020 and as a vice president from 2021 onward; other listed officers are Sarsour, Linen and Angelo Pinto.
On 14 July 2020, Until Freedom organized a march in Louisville, Kentucky, to the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, where participants sat on the lawn to press for charges over the killing of Breonna Taylor. Louisville Public Media reported that 87 people were arrested and that each was charged with intimidating a participant in a legal process (a Class D felony), second-degree disorderly conduct and third-degree criminal trespass, and that the action was planned in coordination with Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer. TIME reported that Mallory was among those arrested and that she said on Instagram that participants would stay at the jail until everyone was released. On 17 July 2020, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell announced that the felony charge would be dismissed against each of the 87, saying it was “in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas”; the remaining charges were left under review. No conviction of Mallory arising from this arrest is recorded in any source consulted here.
Writing
Mallory is the author of State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built, published on 11 May 2021 by Atria Books and Black Privilege Publishing. The Library of Congress established its name-authority record for her from that book’s title page in May 2021.
What Is Not Established Here
This page was rewritten from a two-sentence stub. The removed or unasserted material is:
A birth year and birthplace. The Library of Congress name-authority record for her carries no birth date, and no primary record fetched in this pass gives one. The commonly repeated “born 1980 in Harlem” traces to a 2011 Amsterdam News article this pass could not retrieve, so it is not asserted.
The claim that she joined the National Action Network staff at age 15. NAN’s own 2009 release says she had been on the national staff since 2001 and does not mention her age at joining.
An end date for her National Action Network tenure. Contemporaneous NAN releases place her in the role from 2009 through at least July 2012; nothing fetched here records when it ended.
The stub’s general statement that she “has been involved in gun violence prevention advocacy and various social justice initiatives.” The specific, dated NAN actions above are given instead; the vaguer formulation is not.
The 2018 Coretta Scott King Legacy Award, which appears only in a local television report this pass did not retrieve, and co-chairing of the 2017 Day Without a Woman action, for which no source beyond Wikipedia was found.
Any characterization of Mallory’s views on Louis Farrakhan or on anti-Semitism stated in the project’s voice. What appears above is CNN’s reporting and the parties’ own statements, attributed as such.
Follower counts and platform entries. Instagram and X could not be read by any method available in this pass, so no primaryPlatforms list or follower figure is asserted.
Sources
- 01.
National Action Network. National Action Network Makes New Appointments. (2009). First-party press release dated 23 July 2009, announcing an appointment made 12 June 2009. Source for Mallory being named Executive Director of the National Action Network by Al Sharpton; for her having been on the organization's national staff since 2001; for her earlier roles there as a press and public relations associate under Rachel Noerdlinger, then lead events planner, then coordinator of NAN's Social Justice Ministry and director of NAN's Decency Initiative; for the Decency Initiative having been organized after the Don Imus episode involving the Rutgers women's basketball team; for her having been named by Ebony among 30 influential national leaders under 30; and for Michael A. Hardy being named Executive Vice President and General Counsel in the same announcement. It does not say she joined the staff at age 15.
- 02.
National Action Network. Latest Charges Against NY Police Officers for Gun Smuggling Is Troubling at a Time When NYPD Is Asking for Community Support & Activism to Counter Gun-Violence Says NAN ED Tamika D. Mallory. (2011). First-party release dated 25 October 2011 identifying Mallory contemporaneously as National Executive Director of NAN, recording her appearance on NY1's 'Inside City Hall' with Errol Louis, and carrying her quoted statements on the gun-smuggling charges against NYPD officers and on stop-and-frisk. Retrieved with a browser user-agent.
- 03.
National Action Network. National Action Network's Tamika D. Mallory & NAACP's Marvin Bing to Lead Community Walk Through Harlem Thursday to Raise Awareness about Stop & Frisk. (2012). Media advisory dated 13 June 2012. Source for Mallory, as NAN National Executive Director, co-leading a 14 June 2012 awareness walk through Harlem with the NAACP's Marvin Bing, for the accompanying vigil with the family of Ramarley Graham, and for the Father's Day silent march down Fifth Avenue against stop-and-frisk on 17 June 2012 organized by NAN, the NAACP, 1199 SEIU and a coalition the release describes as more than 115 organizations.
- 04.
National Action Network. The Mother of 4-Year-Old Lloyd Morgan To Announce Funeral Arrangements Alongside NAN Executive Director Tamika Mallory. (2012). Media advisory dated 25 July 2012, still identifying Mallory as NAN's National Executive Director. Source for her appearing with Shianne Norman, mother of four-year-old Lloyd Morgan, who was fatally shot at a Bronx basketball game, and for the associated press conference and vigil. Used here for the gun-violence strand of her NAN work.
- 05.
Fortune. Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland, and Carmen Perez — The World's 50 Greatest Leaders. (2017). Fortune's 2017 list, rank 34, listing the four under the title 'National Cochairs' and the affiliation 'The Women's March on Washington'. Source for the co-chair role; for Fortune's account that the four organized the march in barely two months; for an original 250,000 estimate exceeded by a Washington crowd Fortune describes as reaching nearly half a million; for a worldwide total Fortune says approached 5 million; and for the 10 Actions/100 Days follow-on effort.
- 06.
TIME. Women's March Leaders — TIME 100. (2017). The 2017 TIME 100 entry for Mallory, Bland, Perez and Sarsour, written by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who calls them 'four extraordinary women' and 'the suffragists of our time'. Source for their inclusion on the 2017 list. **time.com now returns HTTP 406 to every automated client on both URL forms** — this collection-post URL 301-redirects to the collection URL, which 406s, so the workaround this note previously described ('this collection-post URL serves the same entry') no longer works. The archived capture of 20 April 2017 carries the entry and both quoted phrases, and was read instead. The identical defect was corrected on `people/linda-sarsour` in the measurement pass; this sibling citation was not checked at the time.
- 07.
Sullivan, K. (2019). 3 founding board members of Women's March leaving after allegations of anti-Semitism. CNN. Published 16 September 2019, retrieved with a browser user-agent because cnn.com returns 451 to automated clients. Source for the announcement that Mallory, Bob Bland and Linda Sarsour would transition off the Women's March board — three people, not four; Carmen Perez-Jordan was named among seventeen incoming board members and remained on the board. Source for the Women's March statement to CNN that 'the organization has not cut ties with the three departing board members; their terms have ended' and that the three had been 'instrumental'; for criticism of the group's leadership over association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose organization CNN notes is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center; for the allegations of anti-Semitism, which CNN says the founders deny; for Mallory and Perez having posted photographs with Farrakhan; for Mallory attending a February 2018 event at which Farrakhan spoke and not denouncing him afterwards; for Teresa Shook's later call that the four co-chairs step down; and for Vanessa Wruble's account to the New York Times, which Mallory and Perez disputed. CNN credits the Washington Post with first reporting the leadership change.
- 08.
Carlisle, M. (2020). 87 People Arrested During Breonna Taylor Protest Outside Kentucky Attorney General's Home. TIME. Published 15 July 2020. Source for Mallory having been among those arrested at the 14 July 2020 sit-in on the lawn of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, for her identification as a co-founder of Until Freedom, and for her Instagram statement that participants would remain at the jail until everyone was released and that bail money would be provided.
- 09.
Velzer, R. V. (2020). 87 Protesters Arrested Outside Attorney General Cameron's Home. Louisville Public Media. Published 14 July 2020. Source for the count of 87 arrests; for the three charges filed against each participant — intimidating a participant in a legal process (Class D felony), second-degree disorderly conduct (Class B misdemeanor) and third-degree criminal trespass (violation); and for Until Freedom having organized the action in coordination with Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer. This article names Linda Sarsour but not Mallory.
- 10.
Romero, D. (2020). Felony charges dropped against 87 Breonna Taylor protesters arrested on Kentucky AG's yard. NBC News. Published 17 July 2020, retrieved with a browser user-agent. Source for Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell's announcement dismissing the felony intimidation charge against each of the 87 protesters 'in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas', with the remaining charges under review; and for the photo caption identifying Mallory among those arrested.
- 11.
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Until Freedom Inc — IRS Form 990 and 990-EZ filings (EIN 84-2924235). IRS filing data for the organization Mallory co-founded, retrieved as HTML with a browser user-agent because the officer tables are not in the v2 JSON API and the 990 PDFs return 403. Until Freedom Inc is a 501(c)(4) registered in Baldwin Place, New York, tax-exempt since March 2025. Its earliest filing is a 990-EZ for fiscal year 2019 reporting $346 in revenue, with Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Mysonne Linen listed as directors. Reported total revenue by fiscal year: 2019 $346; 2020 $2,878,366; 2021 $796,174; 2022 $460,944; 2023 $872,234; 2024 $1,413,287. Mallory is listed as a Director for 2019 and 2020 and as Vice President from 2021 onward, with reported compensation of $54,400 (2020), $136,922 (2021), $134,894 (2022), $142,175 (2023) and $134,091 (2024). Other listed officers include Sarsour, Linen and Angelo Pinto; board members listed include Monique Idlett, Yandy Harris-Smith, Murad Awawdeh, Kevin Liles and Calvin Broadus Jr.
- 12.
Library of Congress. Mallory, Tamika D. — LC Name Authority File record no2021058731. Library of Congress name-authority record created 14 May 2021. Its only cited source is the title page and about-the-author copy of 'State of Emergency' (2021), which describes Mallory as 'a social justice leader, movement strategist, civil rights activist, and cofounder of Until Freedom and the historic Women's March'. The record carries no birth date, which is why this page asserts none. The .html view returns 403; the .json view serves.
- 13.
Mallory, T. D. (2021). State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built. Atria / Black Privilege Publishing. Publication confirmed through the Open Library search API — sole author Tamika D. Mallory, first published 2021, publication date 11 May 2021, publishers Atria Books and Black Privilege Publishing, ISBNs including 9781982173463 and 9781982173470 — and through the Library of Congress name-authority record above, which was established from the book's title page.