Erica Perry is an organizer and movement lawyer from Nashville, Tennessee, committed to fighting for power with Black people and working-class communities in the US South. Erica has worked with organizers and advocates in Tennessee and nationwide to create alternatives to police and jails, organize for local budgets that invest in community-based resources, and build power. After graduating from East Literature Magnet High School, Erica studied political science and public administration at the University of Tennessee. She graduated from the University of Memphis School of Law in 2016 and is licensed to practice law in Tennessee. Erica returned home in 2019 and co-founded the Black Nashville Assembly and Southern Movement Committee to focus on participatory democracy, the abolition of the prison industrial complex, and youth organizing. 

In 2015, while in law school, Erica co-founded the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter (BLM Memphis). While a member of BLM Memphis, Erica organized to end money bail and pretrial detention, led the Black Mama’s Day Bail Out campaign, and co-founded the National Bail Out. In 2017, Erica became the assistant Partnerships Director at Law for Black Lives. While at Law for Black Lives, Erica provided legal and policy support to movement organizations focused on police and prison abolition campaigns and trained and organized lawyers to support base-building organizations. As Partnerships Director at Law for Black Lives, Erica was a coalition leader with the People’s Coalition for Safety and Freedom, managing the People’s Process for the campaign. 

Erica is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Erica is the executive director of the Southern Movement Committee.