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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) One of the newly prominent voices in the local civil rights movement says she grew up among routine, everyday racism in a tiny western Pennsylvania community.

Now an aspiring civil rights lawyer, she says the key to changing minds is to start young.

I came from an extremely small town, says Tanisha Long, founder of Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh and Southwest Pennsylvania. Racism was a big thing there. Its baked into the foundation. And a lot of people have no desire to change those attitudes.

Long says her group and others are beginning to move past protests and toward concrete action. Long sees educating kids as the best way to fight bigotry.

My goal is to stop it at the root, Long said.

Key to that mission, Long says, is an online fundraiser that aims to get books about diversity and featuring characters of color into little kids hands, and books about civil rights, diversity, black history, emotional management, and difficult conversations to older children.

But Long says she is not necessarily giving up on older generations.

If you dont want to learn and your only goal is to kind of attack and berate, then I understand that I am watering a dead plant. But theres so much of the older generation that does want to learn or never learned better that its still worth your time to reach out, she says.

Already, Long says she senses, among some, a reckoning.

Some of my old classmates are coming to me and saying, I apologize. A lot of them are saying, It was jokes, I didnt understand that something like that actually wasnt funny. There were people who said, I was raised that way and it wasnt until later that I knew it was wrong and I didnt know how to make amends for that,' Long said.

No grudges held, says Long.

If youre a person who changed and grew, I love it. Its fantastic. Im glad. Thats the point, isnt it? To get some of that hate out of the world.

Originally posted here:
Founder Of Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh And Southwest Pennsylvania Ready To Leave Her Mark - CBS Pittsburgh

"Black lives matter to me and we need justice for it," said elementary school student Sadler Golden.

SEATTLE Elementary and middle schoolers in North Seattle marched in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday.

Families from Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and Cascadia Elementary School joined together for the march, organized by the PTA.

As kids of all ages participated, their parents wanted them to understand you're never too young to use your voice.

Their little voices carried a big message.

"Black lives matter to me and we need justice for it," said elementary schooler Sadler Golden.

Parents, kids, and teachers met at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School for the march that looped between the two schools and continued on.

"Actions speak so much louder than words and it's really powerful for them to walk with each other, walk with their parents, walk with their principal and learn what it means to be an ally," said Jolie Nivison. She's part of Cascadia Elementary School PTA and helped organize the march.

"This is a turning point in history where we're all understanding that we need to do much more," she said.

Nivison said she hopes this is just one step in the direction of a better future.

"There's many steps to impacting the change and I think the earlier that we can get them involved in understanding that, the better," she said.

Kids chanted, "No justice, no peace," as they rounded the block of their schools.

"If Black lives don't get any justice, then Black lives aren't really going to get any peace," student Max Goodrich said.

Excerpt from:
Parents turn Black Lives Matter march in North Seattle into a learning opportunity for their children - KING5.com

Lots of fun at the Cadillac Barbie IN Pride Parade in Downtown Indianapolis, Saturday, June 10, 2017.

Though the vibrant colors, expressive dancing and energetic performances of the Indy Pride parade and festival wont fill the streets of downtown Indianapolis Sunday, they will still be present as the celebration shifts to an online event.

This year, while there will be virtual dance parties, celebrity shout-out videos and performances from artists including Huckleberry Funk, there will also be a focus on amplifying and supporting the voices of Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).

Given the tragedies that are happening in our community with Dreasjon Reed and the tragedies that are happening across the country, said Tabitha Barbour, Indy Pride program director, we felt like our festival was an important place for us to contribute to the conversation.

Scenes from the Cadillac Barbie Pride Parade on Mass Ave. in Indianapolis, Saturday, June 8, 2019.(Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)

As part of this effort, this weekend's celebration will include a fireside chat with Queering Indy and Indy10 Black Lives Matter, and organization dedicated to "serve, support and love Black people," according to the organization's Facebook page.

"While Pride is definitely a celebration, Pride has always been a protest as well," said Matty Slaydon, an organizer of an organization called Queering Indy.

Queering Indy is dedicated to raising up the voices in the queer community, especially those ofpeople of color and transgender people. Sladon said the two organizations have spent a lot of time working together to explore the best way to use their platforms to "raise up the voices of Black and brown people within our community."

There will also be several opportunities for meditation and reflection throughout the night.

"I think the virtual Pride has given us more of an opportunity to spend time using it as an educational platform for people in our community," Sladon said. "I think we have a responsibility now to take the time to educate ourselves and listen to the voices that are traditionally quiet in our community."

Barboursaid it's important to remember that the first Pridewas the Stonewall Uprising, a protest led by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were both trans women of color.

She added that combining celebration, education, history and healing is important to ensure everyone feels like they have a "place and space in Pride."

Barbour and Indy Pride Executive Director Chris Handberg said they hope individuals feel able to "freely and unapologetically" be themselves without fear of oppression or persecution while also taking time to listen, learn and help the message that Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter extend beyond the celebration.

"It's time for us to admit that we have been wrong and our silence is wrong, so we need to really intentionally lift up their voices to speak ... and let their voices be heard," Handberg said.

The virtual event will start at 2 p.m. Click here for the full schedule.

Click here to watch the Indy Pride Virtual Celebration.

Contact IndyStar Pulliam Fellow Brooke Kempat bkemp@gannett.com.Follow her on Twitter@brookemkemp.

Read or Share this story: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2020/06/18/indy-pride-sees-changes-due-coronavirus-black-lives-matter/3205840001/

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How coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter movement is changing Indy Pride - IndyStar

There is some precedent for massive giving at cultural inflection points. In mid-2018, as the Trump administration was separating families at the border, a single Facebook fund-raiser for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in Texas went viral, raising $20 million in a few days.

But that was one fund-raiser and one group, not the vast array of organizations that have experienced recent windfalls, including the activists and advocates as well as some of the journalism outlets that cover them.

One tiny group in Chicago, Equity and Transformation, which serves black people left behind in the economy, saw a dormant GoFundMe page go freshly viral, raising $44,000. Weve never had that kind of resources, Richard Wallace, the founder, said.

Unicorn Riot, an alternative media company that closely covered the early Minneapolis protests, blew past an initial $5,000 online fund-raising goal by a factor of 100, raising $570,000, according to the sites online tracker. And The Marshall Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization that reports on the criminal justice system, saw its membership double, from 4,000 to 9,500, according to Carroll Bogert, the groups president.

Were just sitting here doing our jobs and donations started skyrocketing, she said.

The energy to contribute is so vast that even those without money have sought ways to contribute, including watching videos on YouTube that promise to direct every dollar of revenue to racial justice causes.

I wish I could give money I cant, Im broke, said Zoe Amira, a 20-year-old who lives outside Chicago and posted an ad-laden video that was viewed more than nine million times, generating $42,000 before it was yanked for violating ad policies. She later said on Twitter that YouTube told her it would make a donation of an equal size because it so believed in the essence of the project.

Celebrities Chrissy Teigen, Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, among others have joined and amplified the giving, too. One pop singer, Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, posted receipts for $500,000 in donations. And the K-pop boy band BTS announced giving $1 million to Black Lives Matter; its fan group matched that by donating $1.3 million to a dozen advocacy groups.

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Black Lives Matter and Other Groups Flooded With Millions in Donations - The New York Times

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) Prairie View A&M students and staff are painting a Black Lives Matter street mural on Sandra Bland Parkway.

The stretch of road was renamed after Bland, whose death fueled national outrage about police brutality.

Sandra Bland (source: CBS Chicago/Facebook)

Mayor David Allen teamed up with the Universitys School of Architecture to design a template for the permanent mural.

Students and alumni, leaving and coming into campus can read it and know that, in Prairie View, were doing our part to spread the message, said Allen. It solidifies the fact that were sick and tired of being sick and tired; were not going to go through the racial profiling unaddressed; were not going to go through some of what they did to people like George Floyd, Sandra Bland, and countless more, any more.

Staff and students from PVAMUs Fabrication Center created templates and renderings for the mural, which will be 12-feet wide and 19-feet tall, with three-feet of spacing in between.

Continued here:
Black Lives Matter Mural Coming To Sandra Bland Parkway In Prairie View - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth