Clarissa Brooks is a black queer writer and activist based in Atlanta. She is currently an HBCU At Large Regional Advisor at Civic Nation. ^[2] Brooks identifies as queer and uses she/her pronouns. ^[3]

Brooks is a graduate of South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. She attended Spelman College where she studied English and Journalism. Brooks graduated in 2018. ^[2]

In the past, Brooks has written for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, Teen Diaries, and The Huffington Post. She was a Summer Fellow at Students for Education Reform and an HBCU Digital Media Fellow for the Online News Association. Musically, she was involved as an Assistant Managing Editor for Dead End Hip Hop and had a Music Internship at Creative Loafing Atlanta. Brooks was later a Reporting Fellow for Everyday Feminism and a Georgia Field Organizer for Color Of Change. She is currently an HBCU At Large Regional Advisor at Civic Nation. ^[2]

On January 7th, 2019, Brooks asked Shaun King a question over his fundraising efforts. She deleted the tweet over fear of being sued. Several days later, she received an email from King and his lawyers threatening legal action if she did not publicly apologize. Brooks asked King to reconsider his approach but King responded by doxxing and harassing her. Brooks has started the #ISupportClarissa hashtag to raise awareness of her situation. ^[4]

According to King, Brooks made a tweet stating, "Are folks going to hold Shaun King accountable to money he "raised" for Cyntoia?

Or is that going to disappear as well...".

King has said that Brooks' tweet was false and libelous.

King also said that the allegation is completely false since he had no involvement in any of the fundraisers held for Cyntoia Brown. ^{[5] [6]}