Dianne Hanley has connected to TBR through various institutions, most recently with Spirit and Justice, a non-profit she helped found two years ago. Since getting involved during the organization’s early years, she has co-chaired several successful action teams and connected a great deal of new leaders to the organization. Audio coming soon.

I was born in Donaldsonville, but I grew up in New Roads until 5th grade, attending a Catholic school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph. That had a huge impact on my life.  My father came from generations of Cajun Catholics and my mother was a convert to Catholicism. When I was in 4th grade, my parents actually signed up to do missionary work in Guatemala and moved our family with 7 kids there. My dad’s missionary work was to do dentistry for the poor. We didn’t proselytize; we evangelized more with our actions than with words. This was a powerful experience for a 4th grader. I was put in a classroom where no one else spoke English. That really affected my view on things.

When we returned to Louisiana for my 5th grade year, the nuns decided to integrate the Catholic school. So, I saw the impact of integration on a lot of my friends. My closest friend's parents pulled out all 6 of their kids from the school. The parents started a new private school that was not integrated. And that made me wonder about why this Catholic family would leave a Catholic school and form another private school rather than be in a Catholic school. Of course, I learned that it was because Black students were being brought in through integration and these families didn't want their kids in school with them. My parents believed that integration was the right thing and so we stayed. 

I grew up in a family of four daughters and then three sons, and I was the third in line. The middle of the middle. In my family, girls weren’t encouraged to go to college. I was expected to graduate from high school and get married. And then you're taken care of.  I met my husband, John, at Christ the King Catholic Church.  We got married and he just so encouraged my learning and my desire to learn. He knew I was smart even though I didn't have a college education. So I got my “Mrs.” degree first *laughs* and then went to college.  And, um, I surprised myself. It was an eye-opening, blossoming experience. And I ended up graduating Magna Cum Laude from LSU. 

I first connected with Together Baton Rouge when I was working for Catholic Charities. Part of that job was to watch local organizations that wanted funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). When Together Baton Rouge was forming, they were looking at getting CCHD funding. Brod came to my office to talk to me about what they were forming. And I mean, a lightbulb went off! A lightbulb! I had been working very, very hard on public transportation. Personally, it was an important issue to me. And I just kept knocking my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get it funded. Then Brod walked in and he asked, "What issue is important to you and why?" So I talked about public transportation, and then he told me, "Well, let me just tell you about this organization" *laughs* And it was like, This is going to get me the funding. I just know it. This is the organization that I need. I saw it right away.  

I was so on fire about the possibilities that TBR presented that I quit my job at Catholic Charities. My husband and I discussed it, and it was a difficult decision because my salary was a third of our family's income. But he knew how passionate I was about justice work. And if I could see that this was going to accomplish what I was trying to accomplish, then we decided that I would quit my job and devote my time volunteering with Together Baton Rouge. And it was so powerfully impactful! It did what I asked it to do. It trained me up. It helped me to learn about organizing. I went from hitting my head against the wall, to actually doing things that made a difference. That created change. 

One of the first things I did with TBR was become co-chair with Edgar Cage on the public transportation committee. We got something like $23 million of dedicated funding for public transportation through the work that was done by TBR. So, I was on fire and I’m still on fire *laughs*  

The relationships in Together Baton Rouge— it's just so many people who have made an impact on my life because of this work. The first would be with Broderick Bagert, our previous lead organizer, because he brought me in and he also mentored me. He taught me everything about the practices and the disciplines and the power cycle—the cycle of change. He made sure that I learned what I needed to learn in order to be effective in this organization. I was sad when he left because there was sort of this synergy where I would blossom more by working with him.

But now, I'm finding that I'm having that same synergy with our current lead organizer, Khalid Hudson, even though Khalid is very different. And I'm now coming from a different place. Brod had somebody who didn't know anything; Khalid has someone who has a lot of historical knowledge now, and knowledge about community organizing and its practices and principles that I've learned over the years. And Khalid brings wonderful skills as well. For example, I can be leading a meeting now, because I've learned how to lead a meeting, and Khalid will give little suggestions or ask the right question or give a critique and my mind just opens up. So, that's how the organizers make a difference.