Avella grad focuses on education, literacy in fight against racism
About five years ago, Tanisha Long was looking for books to read to her young godchildren.
But it wasn’t easy for her to find children’s books with Black characters for her godchildren to identify with.
That prompted Long, a Black activist who last month became a founding member of Black Lives Matter of Pittsburgh and SW Pa., to launch a fundraiser to purchase books that feature culturally diverse characters and donate them to schools and libraries.
The fundraiser, however, failed to generate much interest.
Fast forward to May 2020 and the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Long helped organize peaceful rallies and created a Black Lives Matter Facebook page, which has grown to more than 6,800 members.
And, she reintroduced her idea to get books featuring Black Americans into the hands of children in underserved neighborhoods.
This time, it worked.
On Saturday, Black Lives Matter of Pittsburgh and SW Pa. is hosting a “Children’s Book Read-In” event at Point State Park at 2 p.m., where hundreds of free children’s books featuring characters and authors of color will be distributed. Minority speakers will share their stories, and books will be read aloud.
It’s part of Long’s effort to help the local Black Lives Matter movement grow, and to have a positive impact in the region.
“With Black Lives Matter, I asked where can we make an impact? About a week in, it hit me: books. Education and literacy matter. If we’re trying to beat systemic racism, we have to teach kids their value,” said Long, 30, a graduate of Avella High School and a student at the University of Pittsburgh. “Having educated, value-knowing kids changes everything. They know their worth, they know their rights, they know what they aspire to be. They see themselves in these faces, and they won’t accept things that aren’t acceptable. We also want to get the books out to kids in areas where there is no diversity so when they do encounter someone who’s different from them, they’ve already had some sort of recognition with them.”
Long, of Crafton, said the fundraiser has garnered $15,000, and so far she has purchased more than 600 books to hand out to children at the read-in, and to donate to schools, day cares, and Little Free Libraries. Among them: “Sulwe” by Lupita Nyong’o, “Please, Baby, Please,” by Spike Lee, “One Love,” which is based on the Bob Marley song, and teen literature including, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker.”
Long loves to read.
Growing up, she devoured the Harry Potter series and – encouraged by her grandmother, a minister – classic literature.
“My grandmother had us read classic lit. She made me read “Little Women,” and I was so mad at first because I didn’t want to read it. But I loved “Little Women.” I remember thinking, ‘This is good. This is really good. This woman can write.'”
Reading was an outlet for Long, who had a turbulent upbringing.
She and her six siblings moved often with their mother and stepfather until they settled in Avella when Long was entering seventh grade. She was the only Black person in her class.
“There was so much racism there. I dealt with it every day,” said Long, who said she tried to “tone down” her Blackness to get through the days, and endured insults.
Her grandmother, who lived in Burgettstown, was a steadying presence, and during her senior year of high school, Long moved in with her.
In 2008, Long enrolled at Pitt – becoming the first person in her family to go to college – as a pre-law major. But a lack of money and focus caused her to drop out. She enrolled in classes on and off again over the next several years.
She also became involved in human rights matters starting in 2014, when Michael Brown died in Ferguson, Mo., after he was fatally shot by a white police officer.
She joined Black Students Union, and has volunteered in recent years for causes including domestic violence and voters rights.
And Long, who lives part time in Burgettstown, serves on the executive board of the Washington County Democratic Committee as a minority representative for the county. She also is a precinct representative in Smith Township.
She recently appeared in a segment on NBC’s Today Show to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement in Pittsburgh and its smaller, surrounding communities.
Long is enrolled in Pitt for the fall semester, where she will be a junior with a double major in English writing and political science. She currently is the manager of a Pittsburgh-area T-Mobile store.
Long said feels the Black Lives Matter movement has reached an important moment.
“We’re focusing on long-lasting, meaningful change. We all know the protests are going to stop eventually. Now that you’ve got everyone’s attention, what are you going to do with it?” Long said. “We’ve got to figure out what comes next. If we’re going to change the life of a Black person, it starts with education.”
Long pointed to a statistic that on national tests last year, only 18% of Black fourth-graders and 15% of Black eighth-graders scored proficient or above in reading.
“This is really disturbing. If we talk about what our future’s going to be, we have to make the investment in education, and we’re not doing it early enough,” said Long.
Long talked about the systemic racism Black people face, and described a social experiment she completed in a recent college class, where she filled out job applications to 10 companies using her given name, and then using a non-ethnic name.
She received two responses to the application where she used her given name, and eight responses to the other application.
Long said she has been encouraged by the wave of support Black Lives Matter has received from diverse groups of people demanding change and social justice, and said the movement would not be successful without their help.
“It’s a collaborative effort. I’m grateful for the help we’ve had in making this such a huge success,” said Long. “The message I want to get across is that we all have to work together. We have to make sure that those who are out in the streets fighting for change know there are people behind them making sure their efforts aren’t wasted.”
She also responded to why “All Lives Matter” misses the bigger picture, and to people who attempt to delegitimize Black Lives Matter as a hate group.
“In every single group, you will have people who act outside of the core values of the group. In that instance, you’ll usually see the group shun those people. And Black Lives Matter has distanced themselves from people who have done that … they’ve distanced themselves from people who don’t actively work to better the lives of Black people,” said Long. “It’s like the ‘All Lives Matter’ crowd. It’s like, how would you respond if it’s the Fourth of July and people say, ‘All countries matter,’ don’t celebrate it. Or, think about a triage situation. Do you treat the patient who’s bleeding out first, or the patient who is sitting up, talking, and breathing fine? You say this person who’s bleeding out matters right now, and they need my help, and you help them until they get to the level of the stable person, and then you get them both out of there. The point is, (hate groups) are fighting for exclusion; we’re just asking for inclusion.”
To donate to the Children’s Book Read-In, please visit the GoFundMe page at https://gf.me/u/x8fvyc. For additional information on the Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh and SW Pa., visit the Facebook page.