Linda Sarsour was born in 1980 in Sunset Park. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she became involved with the newly founded Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) as both an organizer and a certified Arabic interpreter. In 2005, she succeeded AAANY co-founder Basemah Atweh as executive director. During her tenure, Sarsour was active in a number of progressive causes, particularly the defense of Arab American and African American communities. During the 2016 presidential election, she campaigned for Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and for Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the general election. When Donald Trump was elected, Sarsour took an active role in resisting his administration, including co-chairing the Women’s March on Washington, in January 2017, which attracted millions of participants, in protest of Trump’s inauguration. See this narrator’s full biography and oral history.

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Oral History Clips:

Linda Sarsour compares growing up in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood to her memories of her Palestinian hometown.

See this Oral History Clip’s interactive transcript.

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Linda Sarsour describes her personal introduction to activism through changes in her community post-9/11.

See this Oral History Clip’s interactive transcript.

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