Mrs. Tanya Brown-Dickerson, the mother of Mr. Brandon Tate Brown, will participate in discussion with Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Eric Holder.
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Mrs. Tanya Brown-Dickerson, the mother of a 26-year-old black man named Mr. Brandon Tate-Brown who was killed while unarmed and fleeing by a Philadelphia police officer on December 15th, 2014, had a hard time finding the words to describe what she felt when a call came in from the Clinton campaign asking her to join the former Secretary of State at a North Philadelphia church on Wednesday, April 20th, to share her story and participate in an invite-only discussion – moderated by Rev. Mark Tyler of Mother Bethel A.M.E – on policing, mass incarceration, the criminal justice system and gun violence.
On stage joining Mrs. Brown-Dickerson, who became quite the activist in the wake of her youngest son’s murder, will be Mr. Eric Holder, the former U.S. Attorney General; Mrs. Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Ms. Sandra Bland, who was found dead in a Texas jail cell after being violently arrested following a traffic stop; and Ms. Maria Hamilton, whose schizophrenic son, Dontre, was shot 14 times and killed by a Milwaukee police officer.
The stories of Mr. Hamilton’s and Mrs. Bland’s death went viral, yet Mr. Tate-Brown’s narrative, though it did reach national platforms like The New York Times and PBS, never became as widely known as those aforementioned. So, in addition to inquiring of Mrs. Clinton her precise plans to root-out police brutality and institutional racism while holding police officers accountable if they break the law, Mrs. Brown-Dickerson will aim to use her mic time to capture the attention of the nation and make prominent the story of her son’s death, which succeeded a traffic stop, and the government corruption that followed.
“I need my son’s story heard,” Mrs. Brown-Dickerson, who’s still very much angry at the white male officer who testified that he put distance between himself and Mr. Brown in order to get a clean shot with a gun, not a Taser, told Techbook Online this morning during an exclusive interview.
The upcoming event with Mrs. Clinton is a milestone for Mrs. Brown-Dickerson, who this time last year was preparing to interview Philadelphia Mayoral candidates at a forum on police and criminal justice reform. Prior to December of 2014, when Mrs. Brown-Dickerson attended and participated in a protest for the first time, activism and politics were somewhat foreign topics to her.
It was the death of Mr. Michael Brown in Ferguson that sparked Mrs. Brown-Dickerson’s interest into activism – following Mr. Brown’s killer being found not guilty Mrs. Brown-Dickerson prayed to be put in a position where she can lead on civil rights issues – and it was the untimely demise of Mr. Tate-Brown, who officials said was reaching into a car for a gun when shot but later clarified that wasn’t true, that gave her the conviction to pound the pavements of Philadelphia for justice.
Though anticipating sharing the platform with Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Brown-Dickerson made clear to me that she’s not star-struck; hasn’t yet made an endorsement of any candidate and is extremely interested in questioning the former First Lady as to her human, not political, reasoning for pursuing the presidency.
“I want her to talk to me not like she’s chasing a vote, but like she’s a mother talking to a grieving mother… I want to see the mother in her,” said Mrs. Brown-Dickerson.
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Looking forward to Hillary throwing law enforcement under the bus
Interesting … I wish they would have a discussion about the murder rate in Chicago. Maybe something in line with many blacks stepping forward and asking why. Maybe they could bring up the fact that Mayor Emanuel of chicago skated through his election when he virtually hid a recent case of police violence until the election was over.