Unbound by Tarana Burke

Author:Tarana Burke [Burke, Tarana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

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As hard as it was to be far away from home and not have the same kind of resources as other students, I made a way. When I returned to Alabama State for my sophomore year, half of my crew was gone. Some of my closest girlfriends didn’t come back; Rob transferred to a school back in New York. I had also changed, and by my junior year there was so much turmoil in the administration that it was hard to focus on just being a student. Our new university president made sweeping changes that made it obvious he did not put students first. One of those changes was that students who depended on financial aid were required pay their tuition up front and be reimbursed when federal aid came through. With the number of students attending the school from low-wealth communities, there was no way for us to attend with that kind of policy. We protested and fought back, and eventually a number of policies were rescinded, but the damage had been done. I made the hard decision to join the mass exodus from ASU and transfer to Auburn University at Montgomery. Moving from an HBCU to a PWI (Predominately White Institution) can be culturally devastating, but the blow was lessened by the number of Black students who arrived on campus at the same time. Riding through AUM’s campus on any given evening felt very much like being on a Black college campus.

My years at AUM were marked by the work my friends and I did to support Black students on campus. One of my best friends from 21C, Eddie, who I had convinced to come to Alabama State my sophomore year, transferred to AUM with me. We formed a new crew along with our friend Perry Varner. Perry knew everyone in Montgomery, and he introduced us like we were old friends or family. The administration was not prepared for this new wave of Black kids on campus. Eddie, Perry, and I created the African American Student Alliance, which became the organization that brought Black students together across various affiliations. It didn’t matter what fraternity or sorority you had pledged or who you were aligned with socially: AASA was Switzerland, and because of that we got a lot of work done.

By the time I was a senior, I thought I was clear on what my future held: nonprofit administration. Because I was in Alabama, I stayed very active with the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement the entire time I was in college. I moved up, even becoming a board member. I saw the inner workings of the organization and learned about fundraising and how we kept the doors open. I had decided that I was going to work for a big foundation like Ford or Rockefeller when I graduated. I wanted to be a movement person with real, firsthand knowledge of what it took to run an organization that was helping to move money out into the field. I wanted to make it so organizations like 21C no longer had to beg for financial support.

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