Nikkita Oliver

Nikkita R. Oliver (born February 11, 1986) is an American attorney, non-profit administrator, educator, poet, and political activist. She was a candidate for Mayor of Seattle in the 2017 mayoral election, and finished a narrow third in the primary with 16.99% of the vote. She is widely considered a leader in the Black Lives Matter, civil rights, and criminal justice reform movements in Seattle.

Nikkita Oliver
Oliver, March 2018
Born
Nikkita Oliver

(1986-02-11) February 11, 1986
Indianapolis, Indiana
EducationSeattle Pacific University (BA)

University of Washington (JD)

University of Washington (MS, Education)

Early life and education

Oliver was born in Indianapolis to a white mother and black father. As a youth, she witnessed her father serve multiple sentences for failing to pay child support.[1] The experience was a motivating factor for her work countering the injustices of the American justice system.

Oliver attended Seattle Pacific University and earned a degree in Sociology in 2008.[2] At Seattle Pacific, Oliver became involved with student government and led a racial justice campaign called Catalyst. She also became involved with the local Black Lives Matter organization. Oliver earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Washington School of Law in 2015 and Masters of Education from the University of Washington College of Education in 2016. Oliver worked as an intern for ACLU of Washington, intervention specialist, and chaplain at the Youth Detention Center.[3] In 2015, she was awarded the Artist Human Rights Leader Award by the City of Seattle's Human Rights Commission.[4]

Leadership and activism

2017 mayoral campaign
External video
Seattle’s Next Mayor? Activist, Attorney Nikkita Oliver, PBS, April 4, 2017 retrieved June 28, 2020
Oliver speaking during her 2017 mayoral campaign

Oliver declared her candidacy for mayor of Seattle in March 2017, expecting to run against incumbent mayor Ed Murray, though he resigned due to multiple allegations of sexual assault before the election. Oliver announced she would be representing the "Peoples Party of Seattle" — a collection of community and civic leaders, lawyers, artists, activists and teachers that started organizing after the 2016 presidential election.[5] At the time, Oliver was a part-time teacher at Washington Middle School and Franklin Middle School and provided mostly pro-bono services as an attorney. She also worked for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration.[5] Her campaign focused on a "radical rethinking of criminal justice investments; revisiting the city’s housing proposals to extract more from developers for affordable housing; slowing gentrification; and examining an even higher minimum wage than the recent landmark achievement of $15 an hour."[5] She also brought attention to issues like homelessness, institutional racism, and poverty.[6]

Criminal justice reform efforts

Oliver has worked as an organizer for Seattle’s No Youth Jail and Black Lives Matter movements.[7][8] She works as co-director of Creative Justice Northwest, a nonprofit organization that offers programs to youth most impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline.[9] Following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Oliver helped organize and spoke at numerous protests in Seattle.[10][11] During a closed-door meeting with Mayor Jenny Durkan, Police Chief Carmen Best, and other community leaders, Oliver live-streamed the discussion.[12] She has been an advocate for de-funding the police and civic investment in community-based public health and public safety strategies.[13][14][15]

Oliver has also spoken about outside spending on local political campaigns.[16] In 2017, she was named one of Seattle's Most Influential Seattlelites by Seattle Magazine.[17] She co-drafted a resolution for Seattle’s divestment from the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017.[18]

In January 2020, Oliver was featured as the keynote speaker for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at Edmonds Community College.[19] She has been featured as a guest lecturer and speaker at the University of Michigan,[20] Reed College,[21] the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund,[22] KTCS 9,[23] Pod Save the People,[24] and Town Hall Seattle.[25][26]

Further reading
  • LaVine, Matt (2020), Race, Gender, and the History of Early Analytic Philosophy, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 1498595561
  • Delpit, Lisa (2019), Teaching When the World Is on Fire, ISBN 9781620974322
  • The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781351653343
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References
  1. "Badass Womxn in the Pacific Northwest". University of Washington Press. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  2. "Nikkita Oliver". Seattle Pacific University. December 16, 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  3. "Nikkita Oliver: An Activism-Based Approach to Law". ACLU of Washington. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  4. "Congratulations to 2015 Human Rights Awardees!". City of Seattle. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  5. Kroman, David (March 7, 2017). "Activist, attorney Nikkita Oliver is running for mayor". CrossCut. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  6. McCarthy, Joe (September 1, 2017). "Nikkita Oliver Ran for Mayor of Seattle and Is Fighting for Marginalized Voices". Global Citizen. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  7. "Candidate Profile: Nikkita Oliver". Seattle Met. July 24, 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  8. "Race, Justice & Democracy: Where do we stand?". Seattle Channel. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  9. Cain, Sheila (September 3, 2018). "The healing spaces of Creative Justice". CrossCut. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  10. Uitti, Jacob. ""Building People Power": Nikkita Oliver on Seattle's Extraordinary Protests and What Comes Next". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  11. "Nikkita Oliver on Letting the Vision Lead the Movement". NPR. June 18, 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  12. "In Seattle, the revolution will be live-streamed". KUOW. June 9, 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  13. Alicea, Simone (June 23, 2020). "Nikkita Oliver talks about defunding Seattle police". KNKX. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  14. "Seattle-area protests: March during sixth day of action after George Floyd's killing draws massive crowd around City Hall". The Seattle Times. June 3, 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  15. Scigliano, Eric (June 15, 2020). "Don't Listen to Fox. Here's What's Really Going On in Seattle's Protest Zone". Politico. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  16. "Nikkita Oliver: Outside spending to defeat Kshama Sawant means progressive message resonates". KUOW. August 8, 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  17. "Most Influential Seattleites of 2017: Nikkita Oliver, Dominique Davis and Anne Levinson". Seattle Magazine. November 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  18. "Pipeline activists: Severing ties with Wells Fargo now more important than ever". The Seattle Times. February 7, 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  19. "MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. CELEBRATION TO FEATURE KEYNOTE NIKKITA OLIVER". Edmonds Community College. January 10, 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  20. "School of Social Work Guest Lecture by Nikkita Oliver". University of Michigan. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  21. "Black Celebration Month: Nikkita Oliver". Reed College. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  22. "2017 Awards Ceremony". Stanley Ann Dunham Fund. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  23. Gerdes, Caroline. "Celebrate 100 Years of Trailblazing Women with KCTS 9". KTCS 9.
  24. "A Box Won't Fix Racism". Pod Save the People. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  25. "Race, Justice, and Democracy Where Do We Stand?". Town Hall Seattle. March 22, 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  26. "Violence, Incarceration, and a Road to Repair". Town Hall Seattle. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
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