25 Tarana Burke Quotes on Healing, Empowerment, and Solidarity

Tarana Burke (born 1973) is an American activist and the founder of the 'me too.' movement, which she created in 2006 to support survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black women and girls in underprivileged communities. Growing up in the Bronx, she was herself a survivor of sexual assault and channeled that experience into years of community organizing in Selma, Alabama, where she worked with young women through the nonprofit Just Be Inc. When the phrase went viral on social media in 2017 amid the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Burke worked to ensure the movement remained centered on survivors and systemic change rather than celebrity takedowns. Time magazine named her one of its Persons of the Year in 2017.

Tarana Burke is the visionary activist who founded the "me too." movement long before it became a global phenomenon. For over two decades, she has dedicated her life to supporting survivors of sexual violence — particularly young women of color from low-income communities. Her work centers on healing, empathy, and the radical power of shared experience. Here are 25 of her most powerful quotes on healing, empowerment, and solidarity.

Who Is Tarana Burke?

Key Achievements and Episodes

The Origin of 'Me Too' — A Moment of Empathy in Alabama

In 2006, Tarana Burke was working with young girls at a community center in Selma, Alabama, when a 13-year-old girl confided in her about being sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. Burke listened but later regretted not saying the simple words: 'Me too.' That moment of missed connection inspired her to found the Me Too movement, initially as a grassroots campaign to support survivors of sexual violence — particularly young women of color in underserved communities. For over a decade, Burke built the movement quietly, organizing workshops and support groups.

The Hashtag That Shook the World

On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter: 'If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write "me too" as a reply to this tweet.' Within 24 hours, the hashtag #MeToo had been used over 12 million times. The viral moment, sparked by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, brought global attention to Burke's decade-old movement. Burke initially felt conflicted — the movement she had built for marginalized women of color had been catalyzed by a white celebrity. But she used the moment to center survivors' voices and push for systemic change in workplaces and institutions worldwide.

Building a Movement Beyond the Hashtag

Burke worked to ensure that Me Too remained more than a viral moment. She founded the 'me too.' International nonprofit organization, which provides resources, education, and support for survivors of sexual violence. She advocated for policy changes including stronger workplace protections, statute of limitations reform, and funding for survivor services. Time magazine named her Person of the Year in 2017 (as one of the 'Silence Breakers'), and she has spoken at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and universities worldwide. Burke consistently emphasizes that the movement is about all survivors — not just celebrities — and that healing, not punishment, is its ultimate goal.

Who Is Tarana Burke?

Tarana Burke was born on September 12, 1973, in the Bronx, New York City. Raised in a working-class Black community, she experienced sexual violence as a child — an experience that would profoundly shape her life's work. As a young woman, she became involved in community organizing, drawn to the idea that collective action could address the systemic issues underlying the personal traumas she and others had endured.

In 2006, Burke founded the "me too." movement in Selma, Alabama, where she was working with young Black girls who had experienced sexual abuse. The phrase came from a moment when a 13-year-old girl confided in Burke about being sexually assaulted, and Burke found herself unable to say those two simple words — "me too" — that might have offered the girl comfort through shared experience. That moment of regret became the catalyst for a movement built on empathy and radical healing.

Burke spent the next decade quietly building community-based programs for survivors, developing curricula, and training youth workers — largely outside the national spotlight. Through her organization, Just Be Inc., she created workshops and healing circles that prioritized the needs of marginalized communities. Her approach was rooted in the belief that survivors needed not just legal recourse but genuine human connection and support.

In October 2017, when actress Alyssa Milano used the phrase "Me Too" on social media in response to allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Burke's grassroots work was catapulted onto the world stage. Millions of people shared their own stories of sexual harassment and assault, creating one of the largest social movements in modern history. Burke was widely credited as the movement's founder and was named one of TIME magazine's "Silence Breakers" — the 2017 Person of the Year.

Since then, Burke has continued to center her work on survivors — especially those from communities that receive less attention and fewer resources. Her memoir, Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement (2021), tells her full story with unflinching honesty. She remains a powerful voice for intersectional justice, insisting that the movement must address not only sexual violence but the broader systems of inequality that enable it.

Quotes on Healing and Survival

Tarana Burke's work on healing and survival began long before the Me Too movement became a global phenomenon, rooted in her personal experience as a survivor of sexual assault and her decades of community organizing in the Bronx and Selma, Alabama. In 2006, she created the phrase "me too" as part of a grassroots campaign at Just Be Inc., a nonprofit she founded to support young women of color who had experienced sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation in underserved communities. The catalyst was a conversation with a thirteen-year-old girl at a youth camp who tried to disclose her abuse; Burke later recalled being unable to say the simple words "me too" — an acknowledgment of shared experience that she realized could be the foundation of a powerful healing framework. Her approach to survivor support emphasizes empowerment through empathy, moving beyond the moment of disclosure to address the long, difficult journey of healing that follows, and centering the voices and needs of those most frequently ignored by mainstream conversations about sexual violence.

Quotes on Empowerment and the Me Too Movement

Burke's Me Too movement exploded into global consciousness in October 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano used the phrase in a tweet encouraging survivors of sexual harassment and assault to share their stories, generating over twelve million responses within twenty-four hours. While the viral moment brought unprecedented attention to the prevalence of sexual violence, Burke worked tirelessly to ensure that the movement she had built over eleven years was not reduced to a celebrity-driven hashtag but remained grounded in its original mission of supporting survivors — particularly Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color — in marginalized communities. In 2018, Time magazine named Burke one of the "Silence Breakers" as its Person of the Year, and she used the platform to redirect attention to the structural conditions — poverty, racism, incarceration, immigration status — that make certain populations more vulnerable to sexual violence and less likely to receive justice. Her organization, me too. International, provides resources, training, and community-building tools to survivors and advocates worldwide, reflecting her conviction that lasting change requires sustained grassroots organizing, not just viral moments.

Quotes on Solidarity, Justice, and Community

Burke's emphasis on solidarity, justice, and community reflects her understanding that sexual violence is not merely an individual trauma but a systemic issue rooted in power imbalances that affect every community, workplace, and institution. Her 2021 memoir "Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement" traces her journey from a childhood marked by abuse in the Bronx to her years as a community organizer in Selma, Alabama, where she worked with young Black women and girls whose experiences of sexual violence were compounded by poverty and racial discrimination. She has consistently pushed the conversation beyond high-profile cases involving celebrities and powerful men to address the everyday sexual harassment and assault experienced by farmworkers, domestic workers, incarcerated women, and military personnel — populations whose stories rarely make headlines. Burke's vision of a world free from sexual violence requires not just legal reforms and institutional accountability but a fundamental transformation of the cultural attitudes about power, consent, and gender that enable abuse to persist across every sector of society.

Frequently Asked Questions About Tarana Burke

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