2024 Truth to Power
Winners and Finalists
Fall 2024 Truth To Power award Winner
Ananda Tomas
Way to Rise is proud to award Ananda Tomas for the incredible work she’s done organizing the San Antonio community to push for important criminal justice reforms.
Ananda Tomas spent her childhood in Texas before moving to New Mexico for high school and her early college years. After attaining her Bachelor's in Sociology and Social Work, she traveled the country working for AmeriCorps, where her interest in grassroots organizing and electoral politics began. She spent almost a year in a program called Change Corps, an academy in grassroots organizing, before moving to San Antonio where she served as a Regional Field Director for the Bernie 2016 campaign and later organized for Texas Organizing Project.
Ananda graduated with her Master's in Political Science from UTSA in 2020 at the same time the uprisings from the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor took off. For Ananda, it was the next leg of the Civil Rights Movement. As a Black woman whose sister experienced police violence without the cops ever facing accountability, she felt it was her duty to be a part of it. She’s since dedicated her time to fighting for racial justice and against police brutality in San Antonio, leading her to found ACT 4 SA. The organization has quickly become the lead criminal justice advocacy group in San Antonio and has won multiple policy changes in Bexar County.
She ‘listens first, acts second’: ACT 4 SA’s Ananda Tomas won’t stop pushing for police reform.
By Iris Dimmick | Image via Bria Woods —San Antonio Report
San Antonio Justice Charter headed to likely vote after activists get more than 38,000 signatures.
By Michael Karlis | Image via Michael Karlis
Family and friends honor 17 people in San Antonio killed in police, deputy shootings. This comes on the eve of October 22nd, which is National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality.
By Avery Everett | Image via Azian Bermea
Spring 2024 Truth To Power award Winner
Terrence Wise
Low-wage workers organizing to fight racism and win economic justice.
Terrence is a national and statewide leader in low-wage workers organizing to fight racism and win economic justice for all.
Terrence has been organizing for the past 12 years to fight racism and win economic justice for low-wage workers in Missouri. Initially as a national leader in the Fight for $15 movement he proved to be an inspirational leader and public speaker. He has displayed courage by speaking publicly, going on strike, and doing civil disobedience. His organizing has been extremely effective and won raises for over 22 million workers but also established programs like Tenants' Right to Counsel in Kansas City.
The effort that best represents Terrence's qualifications is his work on the national Fight for$15 movement. Terrence had been working in the fast food industry for seventeen years when he was first approached by an organizer to join the fight to win $15 per hour and a union at his Burger King in Kansas City, MO. His wife and three daughters had been evicted, lost most of their belongings, and lived in their van. That’s what $7.25 per hour while working in a multi-billion dollar industry did to the Wise family.
So Terrence dove in. He pledged to do whatever it took to win $15 and a union, organized his co-workers, went on strike, shared his story with the KC Star and New York Times and led a national movement of low-wage workers like him. He introduced President Obama at the White House Summit on Worker Voice, testified against McDonalds at the Brazilian Parliament, and worked with British McDonald's workers to organize the first ever fast food strike in the UK.
Image in cirlce above via NPR, Luke X. Martin, KCUR 89.3
To earn my vote, the royals need to sign a good jobs community benefits agreement.
By TERRENCE WISE
President Obama, workers need a seat at the table.
By Terrence Wise | Image via Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images
Strong voice in ‘Fight for 15’ fast-food wage campaign.
By Steven Greenhouse | Image via Steven Herbert—NYT
