Kendra Brooks is the first Working Families Party member elected to Philadelphia City Council in history. Now in her second term, she serves as Minority Leader of City Council, a position previously held only by Republicans. During her time on Council, she has been an outspoken champion for reproductive freedom, housing justice, public schools, and taxing the rich to fund community resources like parks, libraries, public transit, and health services.
Kendra has deep roots working across movement-building organizations throughout Philadelphia. Before taking office, she brought restorative justice practices to schools and communities, fought school privatization and gun violence in Nicetown, and built a stronger progressive movement in Philadelphia with the 215 People’s Alliance and the Alliance for a Just Philadelphia
Kendra’s lived experiences guide her focus on City Council. She was raised in Nicetown, in North Philadelphia, where she still proudly resides with her four children. As a young single mother, Kendra worked as a domestic worker and a nursing assistant to pay her way through the Community College of Philadelphia. She was a proud member of 1199C and grew to understand the importance of the labor movement to working families. She received her undergraduate degree from Temple University and went on to receive a Master’s in Business Administration from Eastern University.
For seventeen years, Kendra worked at Easterseals, where she coordinated summer programming for children with disabilities and connected families to important community resources. As a result of deep budget cuts made by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, the program’s funding was eliminated, and Kendra lost her job. Afterwards, it was difficult for her to find work with a comparable income, and she eventually lost her house to a sheriff’s sale. Kendra’s commitment to housing justice and her understanding of the struggles of Philadelphia families were shaped by these experiences.
Kendra began organizing with Parents United for Public Education when a charter school operator announced it would take over Steel Elementary, where her children attended school and she served as a member of the school’s Parent Advisory Council. She mobilized neighbors, parents, and families through one-on-one conversations, community meetings, and strategic outreach to build momentum against the charter school takeover. After Kendra and her neighbors successfully organized parents to vote against the plan, the operator ultimately backed down. Her activism grew from there. Kendra went on to found Stand Up Nicetown and the Our City, Our Schools coalition, which helped bring the School District of Philadelphia back to local control. In addition to her parent and community organizing, Kendra was an active member of the 215 People’s Alliance Steering Committee. In this position, she convened the Alliance for a Just Philadelphia, a coalition of more than 20 community-based organizations fighting for progressive change in Philadelphia.