Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke was born on September 12th, 1973 and is currently 53 years old. Tarana Burke was born in The Bronx, New York, USA. Burke attended Auburn University at Montgomery where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She also attended Alabama State University.

Tarana Burke is an activist from New York City that started the MeToo movement.

During college, she organized protests and press conferences that were focused on racial justice. Tarana has spearheaded initiatives addressing issues like housing inequality, racial discrimination, and economic justice.

In 1997, she met this girl named Heaven in Alabama that told her about getting sexually abused by her mom’s boyfriend. Tarana says she didn’t know what to say and she never saw that girl again. She says she wishes she’d told the girl “me too”.

Tarana developed the nonprofit Just Be Inc in 2003 after working with survivors of sexual violence, and it was an all girls program for Black girls ages 12 to 18.

In 2006, she started Me Too as a youth program for junior and high school students with the intent of addressing the rampant sexual violence in the community.

She was a consultant for the 2014 movie Selma, which was based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. James Bevel, John Lewis, and Hosea Williams.

Time named her, among a group of other prominent activists dubbed “the silence breakers”, as the Time Person of the Year in 2017.

Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the MeToo Movement is a powerful memoir about her journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words and how she brought empathy back to a whole generation in one of the biggest cultural events in American history.

She didn’t always have the bravery needed to say me too. While she was a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, thinking she was responsible. Not able to confess what she believed were her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. On one side was the bright and intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black power and literature, and the other was the shame ridden and bad girl that believed she was a vile rule breaker, not a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind anger and pain, and that seemed to work too until it didn’t.

This is the story about one inimitable woman’s perseverance and inner strength, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world all around her, however it’s also the story about empathy, possibility, power, and about the leader we’ve all got inside us.

Tarana Burke: Lists & Other Mentions

• Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement: Time Magazine: 100 Must-Read Books Selection in 2021.

Related Authors

Readers who follow Tarana Burke also follow these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
3. Charles Dickens, author of: A Christmas Carol.
4. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale Series.
5. Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl Series.

Tarana Burke: F.A.Q