Creating a Brighter Future for Black Children and Families

An Interview With:  

Tonia McMillian,  Black Californians United for ECE

Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE) is a powerful coalition of advocates, policy-influencers, civil rights organizations, researchers, university faculty, non-profit leaders, early educators, caregivers, providers, families, and community-based organizations. 

BlackECE members have intentionally organized our influence around a 10-point policy plan to serve over 490,000 of California’s Black children (Kids Data, 2020). BlackECE intends to create bridges to previous work and create equity-minded policies that focus on Black children, families, and the ECE workforce.

National Newspaper Publishers Association interviewed Tonia McMillian, one of the leaders of the initiative. 

NNPA: Please describe Black Californians United for ECE? What are its mission and goals?

Tonia McMillian: BlackECE is a collective of Black early learning and care providers and advocates united to fight against social hierarchies and biases in the early education system.  

Our mission and goals include removing barriers and racial compensation gaps between Black educators and their counterparts, ensuring that Black early educators are not excluded from the reparations fight, language justice, and culturally affirming spaces in the early care and education environment.

NNPA: How are the issues and concerns of Black Californians relating to ECE different or unique from those of the majority population?

Tonia: It is our purpose to assist workers in the early learning and care fields in “unlearning” some of the implicitly biased and negative stereotypes placed on Black people as a whole.  At the same time, our team is learning and growing in our own spaces, in our history, and in the roles that those who came before us played, ensuring that we will be able to thrive and grow generationally.

NNPA: Do you see this movement spreading to other states and parts of the country?

Tonia: Currently, we are covering California.  However, other states have reached out and are anxiously awaiting the day we can expand into their home states.

NNPA: What is the Book Club? What’s included?

Tonia: The Book Club is a list of books that BlackECE recommends as good representations for Black children and non-Black children to see themselves in a positive, familiar light. The details are at https://blackece.org/bookclub/. 

NNPA: Please describe the Black Family Culture Kit.

Tonia: Our Culture Kits are a subscription-based offer that celebrates unique aspects of Black culture and our historical roots in this country.

NNPA: How does your organization support professional development?

Tonia: Our professional development institute is beginning our second cohort, targeting non-Black early educators and professionals to equip them with tools that will create an enriching, supportive, and inclusive learning environment where Black children can thrive. However, the institute is open to anyone interested in learning how to address the historical harms inflicted on the education system.

NNPA: Where can people learn more and get involved?  

Tonia: We encourage folks to check out our website at www.blackece.org.  There, they can find contact information for any of our team and check out our 10-point plan policy initiatives.

Tonia McMillian was a licensed Early Care and Education provider for over 29 years who retired on December 8th, 2023. She primarily served low-income children and their working families. She helped educate and “raise up” hundreds of children, ages 6 weeks through 13 years old, ensuring that every child has a fair shot at achieving the “California Dream.” 

Following her retirement from the practice of family childcare, she accepted the position of “Woman Who Shakes Things Up” in the Black Californians for Early Childhood Education organization. Ms. McMillian is responsible for directing the Lift Every Voice Campaign, which is comprised of black early educators from across the state of California. She now takes pride in uplifting, educating, and celebrating the roles that black early educators play as key figures in the lives of the children they serve in their learning environments.

She was a proud member of the California State Assembly Blue Ribbon Commission and in 2019 was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the California Early Childhood Workforce Policy Advisory Subcommittee. She was later appointed the Chair of the Subcommittee and, most recently, she was voted in to the Governor’s full Early Childhood Policy Council.

Tonia is serving her second term appointment as the Public Member and was recently voted President of the Physical Therapy Board of California. She is an appointed Delegate for the CA Democratic Party under Betty Yee, former California State Controller, and current CADEM Vice Chair. She is serving her 2nd term as the elected National Secretary to the SEIU National African American Caucus (AFRAM) and is a retired member of Child Care Providers United. Ms. McMillian is a member of the Advisory Council with Parent Voices CA and the Child Care Next Advisory National Board.

Tonia is a staunch advocate promoting pay equity, exposing institutional and systemic racism, sexism, caste references, and fighting biases within the ECE field. Since 2007, she has worked tirelessly for family childcare professionals, mostly women of color, to win the right to collective bargaining. 

She published her first children’s book, “Ducky Duck Wears Boots” on Amazon in December 2023 and is currently working on her book of poetry to be released later this year. Tonia has been an authorized instructor with the American Red Cross for over 15 years. She teaches BLS and Adult and Pediatric CPR, First Aid, and AED.

Last, but certainly not least, Ms. McMillian danced on Soul Train from 1979 to 1983. But her proudest moments are the time spent with her grandson, Amari Washington, and granddaughter, Alina Noelle McKnight. Her grands are her pride and joy.