lift every voice and sing...

"Lift every voice and sing. 'Til earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of Liberty." 

The rise, tsunami spread, and devastating death toll of COVID19, and the drastic measures the world has taken to combat this virus and stem it's spread, has shrunk my and my family's world to our home and neighborhood. We've been especially vigilant because the heart of our family, my mother Dorothy, is 91 years old - thus is a member of the most vulnerable group of humanity susceptible to contract, get sick and die from COVID19. So when she came to me, told me she was going to attend a protest, and to gather the family to join her (of course we said yes) - I grabbed my cameras. Yes, I wanted to capture a nascent protest movement of solidarity against racial injustice and oppression, in a community that has never been so vocal and supportive but, more importantly, I wanted to capture my beautiful and majestic mamma's first protest.

Mamma said: 

Imma lift my voice and march against American racism and police brutality.

My reactive thought: 

If my Mom and ultra conservative religious denominations are protesting, this shit is real.

A string of brutal, racist motivated murders happened a over two months in the midst of COVID19. Namely: Ahmaud Abery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and, most recently, Rayshard Brooks. With the exception of Ms. Taylor, these murders were captured on video (from multiple angles). And these videos were widely shared - in the news and on social media. While our nation was shocked and sickened by the murders; more shocking, sickening and maddening were the police departments investigating their own dragging their feet, lying about what happened and refusing to charge or even arrest the perpetrators. The result: millions of Americans, from every state in the Union took to the streets in protest; as well around the world (including my beloved Paris).

"Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us."

Mom's church (Parkview), specifically her bible study group - the Sunset Sisters, organized a march in the early morning hours; sent texts and emails to their immediate circle of friends to gather in a mostly white suburb about 20 minutes from our home. Not knowing what to expect, our family went anyway (you know we gonna back Dorothy!). What we saw and experienced was quite extraordinary... 

"Sing a song full of hope that the present has brought us."

"We have come over a way that with the tears has been watered.

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered."

That day 250 of us protested but Mamma and her ladies weren't done. They organized another protest for the following weekend...

Rally Against Racial Injustice  

Glen Ellyn & Wheaton, Illinois

"Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, come to the place for which our fathers sighted?"

The weekend before, 250 of us protested against racial injustice and  police brutality. The next weekend, we were 3,000 strong (not including the hundreds of people on motorcycles; in cars, subs, trucks and semis - who honked, hollered, and waved Black Lives Matters signs - as they drove past 3+ miles of protesters, stretching from Main Street Wheaton, Illinois to Main Street Glen Ellyn, Illinois and beyond. Everyone wore masks and social distanced the best the could.

The protesters were of every hue, ethnicity and religion; straight and gay, families (with babies and toddlers), teenagers, the elderly, priests, nuns, Black mothers and mothers of Black children. But the crowd was predominantly white - chanting Black Lives Matter. It blew me away. In my lifetime, I've never seen anything like this. Dorothy said the same.

Walking back and forth, up and down, taking photos, was at times overwhelming. To know, to see, that they were lifting their voices for my sons and daughter, for all Black sons and daughters, in two little American towns, across our nation, around the world - for the first time I truly believe there are now two distinct groups of humanity: Us versus racism. Period. But our work has just begun. Onward.

"Let us march on til victory is won."

Vivre! Rire! Aimer!

Temple

All photography: Temple Hills Photography(c)2020