Carroll Fife

Carroll Fife is an on-the-ground organizer, educator, mother and 20-year resident of Oakland. She has served as co-founder and co-chair of the Oakland Alliance, Oakland Justice Coalition, and the Community Ready Corps where she works to create racial justice and increase access to quality jobs, housing, and education for those who need them most. ​

Carroll is the founder of Black Women in Elected Leadership PAC and an elected member of the Oakland NAACP’s Executive Committee. In 2014, she served as the Campaign Coordinator for a mayoral race that became the City's political compass and in 2016 she ran Oakland’s first African American, all-female slate. 
Carroll was a Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention Platform Committee where she held the line for radical, grassroots values. Carroll believes that wherever power is being expressed, the people must be able to express power and sees community organizing as central to that effort. She currently serves as Director of the Oakland/San Francisco Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

Carroll has contributed to the following wins:

  • Oakland’s Emergency Housing Moratorium.  Carroll organized community mobilizations, salons and protests which led to the attendance of 600 people at an Oakland City Council meeting to ensure passage of a 90-day moratorium on evictions and particular rent increases.  She also participated in the writing of the ordinance which City Council passed unanimously.
  • Coliseum Zoning.  She organized a campaign to prevent the rezoning of an area of East Oakland Industrial zone in order to prevent the potential loss of approximately 8000 jobs as the area was proposed to be rezoned to allow for high-end residential development which would have forced the move of many businesses.
  • Department of Race and Equity. Recognizing the need for a systemic approach to racial inequity within city government, Carroll organized individuals and community groups to support the initiative for a Department of Race and Equity.
  • Cannabis Equity: Do the Right Thing campaign. This historic first, led by one committed councilmember and the stubborn determination of Carroll Fife, resulted in the unanimous passage of the nation’s first Cannabis Equity Permit Program which leveled the playing field for people targeted by the racially motivated war on drugs​.
Creating Freedom Movements nurtures visionary grassroots leaders who build beloved community, cross-issue solidarity and infrastructures of justice & joy. We heal people and the planet by moving from cultures of separation & domination to cultures of connection & reciprocity.