Burke, Tarana

Tarana Burke (born September 12, 1973) is an American activist from New York City, who started the MeToo movement. In 2006, Burke began Me Too as a youth program for junior and high school students with the goal of addressing the rampant sexual violence in the community. Over a decade later, in 2017, #MeToo became a viral hashtag when Alyssa Milano encouraged women to tweet the words if they had experienced abuse and harassment in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases. The phrase and hashtag quickly developed into a broad-based, and eventually international viral movement. Time named Burke, among a group of other prominent activists dubbed "the silence breakers", as the Time Person of the Year for 2017. Burke founded me too. International in 2018, as a container for the movement and serves as Chief Vision Officer. Harvard University published a case study on Burke.