MEET ANTHONY COLLIER
To my Houston family –
The poem by Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete, haunted me. I saw my own people in its verses, choking beneath the asphalt, constrained by systems indifferent to their blooming.
One stubborn rose broke free, clawed through, found the sun, but what of the others? I learned the lesson early: you do not fault the roses that could not push past the cement. You clear the way. You strip back barrier after barrier until every life, every dream, can reach toward the light.
That is why I am running for City Council, not for the singular flower, but for the field of possibility that lies dormant beneath our city’s stone.
I am no stranger to struggle. As a small child, I watched my father get arrested and disappear into the maw of the justice system. My mom worked until her hands blistered to keep us afloat. Schools failed me as often as they welcomed me. I was counted out, with 31 disciplinary referrals to my name. But my village, my church, refused to accept my erasure. They saw possibility where others saw a lost cause. Because of them, I became the first in my family to earn a college degree.
​From there, the world began to open. I graduated from Texas Southern University, studied abroad at Cairo University in Egypt, and returned to earn my law degree at the University of Texas, serving as the Student Body President and Chairman & CEO of the National Black Law Students Association.
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I poured myself into the fight for justice: as the Director of Criminal Justice for the National Urban League in New York City, and as an activist and a staffer fighting for reforms like the chokehold ban, better police oversight, and body camera legislation, because hope demands its defense.
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​I’ve stood on picket lines and written policy. I served in the Texas House and Senate and served as the student organizer for the NAACP Houston Branch. I've worked as the Director of Public Policy for Houston City Councilmember Tarsha Jackson. Now, I am working to help elect Democrats at the Harris County Democratic Party. I carry these battles forward at home, in District B.
I remember always the words of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm: “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” My rent is due. Let’s remove the concrete together, and let’s witness the roses rise.