For nearly 20 years, Nan Tuckett, 77, has lived in Baltimore’s historic Pigtown neighborhood, near Camden Yards. But Maryland is just one of the 10 states where she’s lived, and she’s traveled extensively during her career as a certified public accountant and internal auditor.
Along the way she’s learned a lot about racial inequality.
Nan was born in West Virginia, which was and remains – at 94 percent white – the least diverse state in America. In 1957 she and her parents moved to Atlanta, where Nan was surprised to see water fountains and waiting rooms marked White and Colored. Even as a 10-year-old, she recalls, she knew it was wrong.
As a teenager, Nan lived in Mississippi, and she was there when the “Freedom Summer” of 1964 brought hundreds of college students to the state to help Black citizens register to vote.
Nan was shocked to learn about the many ways her fellow citizens were prevented from voting because of the color of their skin. The most obvious obstacles were poll taxes and a requirement to interpret part of the state constitution to the satisfaction of an all-white panel. The Ku Klux Klan and The Citizens Council actively intimidated Black citizens and those who tried to assist them in registering to vote. Her high school was not integrated until 1969, four years after she graduated and fifteen years after Brown v. Board of Education.
‘Leave only footprints’
Feeling frustrated and helpless about racial injustice, Nan found an unexpected haven in Girl Scouts. It was her introduction to camping and learning ways to protect and maintain the environment. From Girl Scouts she learned “take only pictures – leave only footprints.”
Nan continued in Girl Scouts through high school, and over the years became a leader for each age group from kindergarten through high school. Her troops were always a joyous mix of girls from affluent families and some in public housing; gifted students and those struggling to read; girls from stable families and girls forced to grow up all too soon. The girls learned to work together and depend on one another through hiking and camping.
A Lifetime Girl Scout, Nan encourages new generations to love nature and to embrace the need to protect the environment. To feel a connection to nature, “Kids need to get their hands dirty and their shoes scuffed.”
More recently, Nan joined a neighborhood climate group organized by Third Act volunteer Uta Allers, who invited members to join Third Act’s first Baltimore event – a protest in front of the Wells Fargo bank at the Inner Harbor in December. She decided to give it a try and at the post-action lunch, declared: “Chanting and holding up anti-fossil fuel signs while sitting in rocking chairs with a bunch of old folk like me – what FUN!”
It was also good to recognize that she was participating in tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of taking action to repair and heal the world. Nan wants to leave a viable future for her grandsons, Jacob and Luke.
Third Act’s Lawrence MacDonald wrote a book called “Am I Too Old to Save the Planet?” Nan’s response to that question is simple and whole-hearted: “No! We elders are just the right ones to save the planet”.