KL Shannon: A Life in Service of Community

We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our friend and community leader, KL Shannon. After a hard-fought yearlong battle with cancer, our beloved KL died the morning of September 9^th, 2026. Born March 13, 1967 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in Seattle, WA. KL attended Washington Middleschool and Sharples Highschool.  

KL Shannon grew up in Seattle's Central District, a neighborhood that shaped both her identity and her life's work. As a kid, she got into so many fights that her family nicknamed her "Rooster". This was an early sign of KL’s tremendous fighting spirit that she'd later channel into organizing for justice.

KL’s organizing career began with Mothers for Police Accountability (formerly Mothers Against Police Harassment). Later she worked with Jobs with Justice, where she served as co-chair, to help bring attention to the 1993 killing of Antonio Jackson, a Black man choked to death at a Seattle Safeway over an alleged pack of cigarettes. KL’s early work set the tone for a career centered on accountability and the people most affected by injustice. More recently with her own experiences, she became keenly aware of the need for education around Black women’s health and advocacy to fight medical disparities.

Over the years, KL’s organizing touched nearly every issue facing communities of color in Seattle: she helped repeal an auto impound law that disproportionately targeted low-income residents, rallied Yesler Terrace residents to protect their public housing, led the work to establish Clean Dreams in South Seattle (the precursor to LEAD), and worked with The Defender Association's Racial Disparity Project to challenge racially biased drug laws. She has also documented incidents of police brutality for the NAACP. KL has trained and coordinated street marshals for literally hundreds of marches and rallies to ensure the safety of community protesters and law enforcement alike.  

In 2019, KL joined Seattle Neighborhood Greenways (now Seattle Streets Alliance) as a community organizer, bringing her decades of experience to transportation justice work — connecting issues of economic justice, housing, immigration, and police accountability to the streets and systems people navigate every day. She also worked with the MLK Transportation Justice Team, and Wa Na Wari's CACE 21 initiative as Community Organizing Lead, extending her reach across Seattle's justice and transportation advocacy landscape.

In 2023, KL joined Puget Sound Sage as a community coalition organizer. Over the past three years, KL brought an unwavering vision for justice, deep organizing roots, and a whole lot of humor to the Sage team. KL helped lead non-cooperation trainings last year and this past winter, KL was instrumental in organizing neighborhood ICE-Free Zone trainings with the Sage team, recruiting over 200 people across 20 neighborhoods in mere days of ICE’s surge in Minneapolis. 

KL had a steadfast commitment to mentoring and developing youth leaders from BIPOC communities. She founded Whose Streets? Our Streets! To prioritize the voices of young people and support them in the development of self-advocacy and community activism. Over the past forty years KL provided leadership to the Seattle MLK Jr. Organizing Committee, always ensuring youths’ voices were heard and represented in the annual celebration of Dr. King Jr’s life. 

KL was a true internationalist, supporting the Palestine Liberation movement and also traveled several times to Cuba to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people demanding an end to the illegal U.S. blockade. Wherever the world's people fight for justice, that’s where KL’s sweet and determined spirit can forever be found. 

A recent post described KL as “the organizer’s organizer” and this is so true. The night before she passed, she was adamant that she watch a Whose Streets? Our Streets candidate forum she helped envision with young leaders whom she treasured, making sure there was a strong turnout. KL is the ultimate model for how one could respectively engage with diverse communities, work collectively, and lead with passion.

Most importantly, as much as KL was a fighter, she loved and cared for others just as hard. KL’s tender side for all who she loved was a joy to behold. Alongside her professional organizing, KL lovingly raised her two nephews, working actively to shield them from the school-to-prison pipeline — a commitment that mirrors the same values driving her public work: protecting community, challenging unjust systems, and building a more liberated and equitable Seattle. She also cared for a great deal of cats.

KL Shannon's decades of grassroots work have left a lasting mark on Seattle's movements for economic, environmental, racial, health, reparative, and transportation justice along with abolition. KL will be greatly missed, but her passion and fight will always remain within our community. KL’s legacy will forever be embedded in the work we do as we continue the struggle for justice in her honor.  

It should give many comfort to know how KL’s community came together to support her. Weeks prior to her passing she was surrounded by supportive community members around the clock. The most diverse group of people cared for KL, just as she has cared for the same community for over forty decades. There is no doubt that KL knows how much she is loved and respected. She felt the impact of her lifelong work as all told her how much we love her.

To our Beloved KL, rest in peace and in power. You have inspired an army of activists and we will continue the fight for justice in your name.

KL is survived by her mother Dorthy Demmings, brother Samuel Shannon, Sr., nephews Samuel Shannon Jr., Jakwaun Shannon, and niece Neavah Shannon, and her loving friends and fellow community organizers. Details on the celebration of life will be announced at a later date.