Tabitha Moore moved out of Rutland County because of racial harassment, and now is resigning as president of the Rutland Area NAACP. But she’s handing the reins to another activist she once helped.
Mia Schultz, a Bennington resident, will move into the presidency in January, and she’s thrilled by the opportunity.
“Tabitha asked me a few months ago, and I was really excited and honored that she would consider me,” Schultz said. “I respect her so much. I respect her decision to want me to follow her.”
Schultz’s activism dates back to when she was 13, living in Tucson, Arizona; she started calling up local voters, urging them to push state leaders to honor Martin Luther King Day. Arizona was one of the last states to recognize the holiday, and when it did, Schultz celebrated by marching in the streets with friends.
She identifies as biracial — her mother is white, and her father is Black — and from a young age, she said, she’s felt both invisible and ultra-visible because of her race.
“My grandparents on my mother’s side never acknowledged my existence,” she said. “They didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I grew up with the feeling that I was not important enough to have grandparents.”
She used her experiences as motivation to advocate for marginalized people. She started a Black culture club at her high school in Tucson, which she said was mostly white. She later attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C. That educational experience empowered her.
“I felt called to experience that side of my heritage, which had been neglected in my life for so long,” she said.
Schultz then moved to Southern California, but couldn’t see herself settling there. Bothered by the traffic and worried about the cost of owning a home, she connected with an aunt in New York City who had spent time in Vermont. They moved to Bennington together, buying a multifamily home.
Schultz said she was enchanted by the state until not long after her move her son was called a racial slur at school.
“We experienced some racial trauma right off the bat,” she said.
The school’s response was tepid, she said, so she made a number of phone calls, trying to connect with someone who could help her son. That’s how she first met Tabitha Moore.
“She advocated for me in a meeting, and it was really transformative,” Schultz said. “It was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I can, I can speak and say these things to people who have power, and they will listen.’”
Schultz is now on the board of Rights and Democracy, a local advocacy organization, and has taken an active role in issues central to marginalized residents in Bennington. She’s been a vocal critic of the Bennington Police Department, and co-authored a petition calling for the removal of Chief Paul Doucette and Town Manager Stu Hurd earlier this year.
Moore founded the Rutland Area NAACP four years ago as part of a network of chapters of the national organization in Vermont. There is another chapter in Windham County. A chapter in the Champlain Valley is no longer active.
Schultz said the Rutland Area NAACP now covers Addison, Rutland and Bennington counties. It’s the second-largest branch in New England, with more than 550 members. The group holds workshops and political candidate panels, and advocates for racial justice at the Statehouse.
Members also hold community gatherings, such as potluck dinners and memorial vigils, and people experiencing discrimination can seek one-on-one help from NAACP leaders.
Schultz hopes to help people who immediately need assistance and pursue systemic changes, such as asking local high schools to invite historically Black colleges and universities on student recruitment days — something she recently did with success in Bennington.
“That’s something that they can do very easily,” she said. “And it plants a seed in some child of empowerment. My child has now attended three meetings with different various HBCUs. And he’s set to go, he’s excited, it feels good to him.”
Schultz said she’s taking on the NAACP role with support from her family. Her partner, Shawn Pratt, also advocates for racial justice locally. She said her extended family includes people who are not cisgendered, people who have disabilities, people who speak different languages, and people who identify with different races.
“The lens that my whole entire family comes from is one of diversity,” she said. “I think it’s really important for people to know that it’s not one community that I treasure, like just Black and brown people. It’s everybody.”
In addition to her role at Rights and Democracy, and soon as the president of the NAACP, Schultz also recently agreed to chair the Bennington Town Democratic Party. Her friends, she said, have asked how many new positions she’s going to take.
“As many as I need to take to show people who look like me, and who look like my family, that we have every right to show up in these places,” she said. “It’s about showing up and being representative so that other people feel confident enough to do the same, and so they know there’s support.”
