The Stories team at the Center for American Progress Action Fund works with storytellers who author op-eds about how policy impacts their lives. The team helps elevate their op-eds.
I saw the whole spectrum of the Black experience growing up in East Orange, New Jersey; I saw people do well and I saw people struggle. In 2005, I left the majority Black suburb to attend the University of Pittsburgh. It was a big adjustment I wasn’t prepared for. Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, I immediately saw the systemic disenfranchisement of Black people in this city, including lack of Black professors on campus and leaders across the city.
The only places I truly felt supported and where I could see myself building a life was in Black communities off of Pitt’s campus. Finding Black communities, I began to feel real community and solidarity. I saw another side of Pittsburgh – a side I truly felt supported by and one where I could see myself building a life. I had a background in entrepreneurship and realized my work could actually help improve the economic realities of this community I was coming to love.
The above excerpt was originally published in Keystone Newsroom.
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