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Moved to AUM
Due to changes in the financial policy made right before her junior year of college, Tarana Burke and many other students decided to change universities. They moved to Auburn University at Montgomery, making the change from an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) to a PWI (predominantly white institute). While attending AUM, Tarana formed the African American Student Alliance with a group of her friends. -
Hired to work for 21C
Even before officially graduating from college, Tarana is offered a position at 21C in Selma, Alabama. She was passionate about the movement and wanted to make a difference in the world with her work. Officially, she was hired to raise money for the organization. However, her job title included doing many other tasks as well, including organizing the leadership camps. -
Led her first 21C leadership camp
In the summer of 1996, Tarana was given the opportunity to organize the yearly summer leadership camp. While at camp, she meets a girl named Heaven. While this girl may have been seen as a difficult case by many other camp workers, Tarana saw herself in Heaven in more ways than one. At the Sister to Sister camp event, she undergoes an emotional night listening to many girls' confessions of sexual and physical abuse. In the face of these confessions, Tarana confronts her past. -
Finds out she's pregnant
At the age of 23, Tarana finds out she is pregnant. She prayed that it would not be a girl because she did not want her daughter to have to endure the abuse that she had experienced growing up. Due to events in her relationship early on in her pregnancy, Tarana is once again forced to confront her past. She makes the decision to break up with her current abusive boyfriend and kicks him out of her house. She gives birth to her daughter in 1998 in Selma, Alabama. -
Incident with Malik
At Jubilee, an annual 3 day festival that Tarana helped to coordinate, Tarana's daughter is assaulted. Malik inappropriately talked to Tarana's 7 year old daughter, claiming to want to "show her something that she had never seen before". Tarana confronts Malik after learning about what transpired between him and her daughter and ended up punching him in the face. He was escorted away but was never forced to face any consequences. Tarana hides the incident from her uncle in order to protect him. -
Moved to Philadelphia
After the incident with Bevel had occurred, Tarana realized how important it was to move out of Selma. She began toying with the idea while cooking dinner one day and after a year of consideration and planning, they moved from Selma to Philadelphia. After they move, Tarana finds out that her daughter had been sexually assaulted at camp when they were 5 years old. She is astounded that despite her efforts, her daughter endured the same experience. She confesses to her daughter her own experiences -
Moved back to New York
After her daughter has graduated high school, Tarana moves back to New York. -
#MeToo goes viral
MetToo goes viral on the internet. Tarana realizes that the shift in climate around sexual violence is for the better and gives a platform for many women to talk about their experiences. As Tarana Burke put it "black women and girls deserved the movement".