Oral Histories

Tanya Harris-Glasow

   January 17, 0024

   

Organizer, Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, 2004-2006; Head Organizer, New Orleans, 2006-2010

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1. January 17, 0024 Interviewed by Sophie Kazis

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Tanya Harris Glasow worked as an organizer for ACORN in New Orleans from 2004-2010. In this interview, she talks about growing up in the Lower 9th Ward in a family of ACORN members. She recalls going to her first ACORN meeting as a child with her mother. In 2004, after graduation college, Harris Glasow joined ACORN as a staff organizer in the Lower 9th Ward. She goes into what it was like to learn the nuts and bolts behind the meetings and actions she’d experienced when she was younger, and the challenges of learning to organize. She discusses learning and receiving mentorship from ACORN organizers Vanessa Gueringer and Marie Hurt. She speaks about campaigns and actions before Hurricane Katrina — including one story about getting a sinkhole fixed, and a living wage campaign — and then she goes into detail about her experience of Hurricane Katrina. This includes receiving a call herself from ACORN offering help, and what it was like to quickly jump back into organizing a scattered membership. She also talks about the role of other ACORN chapters in Katrina organizing. She reflects on end of ACORN in the U.S., explaining it was a very painful time for her, that she felt “victimized by the whole thing,” and how hard it was to see the membership through that. In the end, she offers lessons for young organizers what she’s proud of.

Archival Objects

Photograph of ACORN organzing in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizer Tanya Harris-Glasow and others with ACORN New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organzing in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organzing in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organzing in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN-led clean-ups in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN-led clean-ups in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN-led clean-ups in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizer Tanya Harris-Glasow and others fixing a house in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Marie Hurt).

Photograph of destruction in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of New Orleans Senator John Edwards with ACORN leaders in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, which was the first stop on his “Road to One America” tour.

AOHP_GLASOW HARRIS_TANYA_REMOTE_20240117_SKAZIS_ARCHIVAL OBJECT14

Photograph of an ACORN New Orleans member/leader wearing a red T-shirt that says, “I’m from ‘DAT NINE’ and you Ain’t Takin Mine!!!” (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of a meeting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of a meeting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN organizer Tanya Harris-Glasow speaking at an event alongside Wade Rathke and TK (photo credit: Marie Hurt).

Group photograph of ACORN New Orleans members wearing red T-shirts that say, “Raise Wages!” (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of ACORN members, all wearing red T-shirts that say, “Raise Wages!” on a school bus (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of New Orleans ACORN members wearing red T-shits that say, “Save the Lower 9” (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Group photograph of New Orleans members in the wake of Hurricane Katrina wearing red T-shirts and holding signs that read, “We’re Back! Rebuild! Organize! ACORN” (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photogprah of Louisiana ACORN members sitting for a press conference.

Photograph of ACORN organizer Tanya Harris-Glasow and two others on-the-ground in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Marie Hurt).

Photograph of desctruction in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of an ACORN action in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of an ACORN/SEIU Local 100 action in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of an ACORN action in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).

Photograph of an ACORN action in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (photo credit: Tanya Harris-Glasow or Marie Hurt).