Lane Community College Black Student Union Host’s Book Giveaway at Historic Mim’s House
The Lane Community College Black Student Union hosted a book giveaway at the Historic Mim’s House in Eugene on Saturday, March 6. Lane BSU annually hosts a Tiny Titans Summit where they feature an author who tells stories about children who often aren’t found in mainstream books.
The goals of these summits in the words of Dr. Lawrence A. Rasheed, the staff advisor for BSU, “is to encourage home libraries so early readers can have books that look like them.”
This year looked a little different for the Tiny Titans due to COVID-19. The usual in-person events took place over several days. Young readers would come to Lane, read books, and meet the author.
This year, the author spoke virtually and the book giveaway was done outside Mim’s House where social distancing and mask-wearing were encouraged. The author featured this year was Dr. Khalid White whose books celebrate Black childhood and Black families. The two books offered at the giveaway were “Little Brother” and “Little Sister.”
Dr. White collaborated with Isela Garcia White to create a bilingual version of both books which were also available, “Hermanito” and “Hermanita.” A few kids came to the Mim’s House to pick up the books, Dr. Rasheed will also be handing out Dr. White’s book on campus to colleagues and anyone else interested in getting a copy.
Dr. Rasheed’s hope for the future of the Tiny Titans Summit is to be able to provide training to educators on how to “gain cultural capital and pedagogical strategies”. He says it is not enough to just own books that feature Black and Brown children but that teachers should also be trained on how to teach these books. This would foster a more equitable learning environment.
Dr. Rasheed has been pushing Lane Education School District to fund these trainings through finances earmarked for Black student excellence. Last year, LCC hosted a free training session and only one school came. Dr. Rasheed hopes that with more funding and more effort from Lane ESD that future training will be full and every school will be represented.
Dr. Rasheed spoke of equity and how children need to see themselves on college campuses. That is part of the reason that Tiny Titans is hosted at Lane. After the summit, the kids are given their books and they are provided with graduation caps so that they can feel that they belong in higher education. He has a goal of constant inclusive messaging to show kids that not only do they belong in these spaces but that they are wanted and needed.
He believes that education and encouraging young literacy can help build the equitable community that higher education thrives on. Dr. Rasheed and the rest of the Black Student Union believe in the promotion of literacy and they believe in building a space where every student is welcome.
Click here for more information on Dr. White and his books
