Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) socially and politically aware; often portrayed as politically left wing.

1962		N.Y. Times Mag. 20 May 45: [heading][ If You’re Woke You Dig It.
2016		Heatstreet 9 June 🌐 ‘Stay woke’ is the title of a new Black Lives Matter documentary on BET. Many of us [...] might have to work to process what ‘woke’ even means here. For the record, it’s ‘awake’ as rendered in Black English, as in taking the regular past tense form ‘woke’ as in ‘woke up’ and fashioning it as a participle.
2017		Observer 11 June 20/1: It is not enough to be woke — we need to be alive.
2017		Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 Apr. A15/4: All of the history, power and foundation of the prior movements that ‘Stay Woke’ sits on is lost when we belittle this past activism to a hashtag.
2024		B. McQuade Attack from Within 219: The Democratic Party, as inaccurately portrayed by many Republicans, consists of ‘woke’ activists promoting lawlessness and civil unrest, advocating for police defunding, and harboring communist and socialist ideologies.