Tamika Mallory to talk during Miami Gardens event with Benjamin Crump and Sybrina Fulton

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Tamika Mallory, a civil rights activist and author, was born in Harlem. Her parents were founding members of Rev. Al Sharpton‘s National Action Network.

During an interview at the Local 10 News studio on Sunday morning, Mallory, 44, said her activism started after Jason Ryans, her son’s father, was killed in 2001.

“He was shot and that is unfortunately too much of a regular story that happens to young Black men and I realized that America really wasn’t paying attention to the public health crisis that young men are dealing with,” Mallory said.

Mallory, who also grew up in the Bronx, said her son Tarique Ryans, 25, was 2 years old when she decided to engage in “gun violence prevention.” She was an advisor to former President Barack Obama’s administration on gun control initiatives.

Mallory went on to serve as NAN’s executive director in 2009 and she was the co-chair of the Women’s March on Jan. 21, 2017, after President Donald Trump’s first election. She co-founded Until Freedom in 2019.

Mallory, who co-hosts “TMI” on the Black Effect Podcast Network, has been promoting her new book, “I Lived to Tell the Story: A Memoir of Love, Legacy, and Resilience,” which includes her experience surviving abuse and trauma.

“Sometimes it hurts … to live in public, have your life displayed all the time … also learning, coming to a place of having wisdom,“ Mallory said. ”It takes time … We grow through stages, but even our challenges really are designed to help us.”

Attorney Benjamin Crump and Trayvon Martin’s Sybrina Fulton planned to join Mallory during an event on Sunday afternoon, in Miami Gardens.

“People will be able to talk to us as well,” Mallory said adding she will be also selling and autographing books.

Mallory is also the author of “State of Emergency: How We Win In the Country We Built,” a book published in 2021 about “the assault of on Black and brown lives” in the U.S.

Mallory thanked Reggie Leon, a Miami Gardens councilman, for hosting the free event at 1 p.m., at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex, at 3000 NW 199 St.