Do You Know Your Own Power?

I need to tell you about two protests that happened in North Carolina in the Summer of 2020. The first was outside of the governor’s mansion. It was an occupation, which sounds dramatic but it was effectively sleeping in the middle of the street all night and protesting all day. The cause of this protest was a law was about to pass making all deaths within jails, prisons, or police custody in NC confidential. This wasn’t a new bill, it had obviously already made it all the way through the legislature but this was the summer of the George Floyd protests when the viral video of a black man’s death in police custody sparked public outcry across the world. Confidential seemed like intentional hiding of tracks. This particular protest lasted for days and the Governor vetoed the bill.

The next day, an hour up the highway in Winston Salem, an announcement was made about a death in the jail. The day after that, half of the officers involved were fired. On the third day, they released the video of John Neville, having fallen out of his bunk during a medical emergency during the night then handcuffed, having a spit bag put over his head, and being manually restrained to the ground while crying out “I can’t breathe”. The cause of death was asphyxia. A few days ago (years later) a nurse who was present has been indicted in his death but none of the officers involved have been.

What’s even more shocking is that Neville’s death had occurred 6 months prior to the release of the video and the firing of the cops. Locally we protested for an investigation and restitution for the family. I could say a lot about the protest’s right moves, wrong moves, and how unbelievably intricate and occasionally petty any habitat of grassroots organizers can be, but I can tell you it wouldn’t have happened without the protest in Raleigh the weeks before. I was there in Raleigh too, I was 23 at the time and was one of the oldest people out there. If a bunch of teenagers hadn’t made a stand outside of the governor’s mansion we never would have known what was going on in Winston Salem. We can safely assume they would have kept hiding the death of John Neville because they had already done so for six months.

There is an interconnectedness to struggle. Every single person who slept in the street wasn’t critical but some of them were. There is a critical mass that is necessary to plan, execute, attract others and make a difference. Every one of those people are necessary, and not just necessary to that one action but to the future that would be based on their success.

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What Can One Person Do?

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

The first protest I ever did was against a member of the Forsyth County Board of Elections who personally launched complaints and took initiative to remove the voting precinct off of our HBCU campus (his alma mater) and remove it out of our walking distance. This man was later selected to be on this university’s board of trustees. We thought this was unfair and that he had a conflict of interest between his election official duties and the board of trustees. I recruited five people to come to the board of trustees meeting and demand his resignation. The student body president was required to attend the board of trustees meeting and we had written a statement for him calling to have the board member removed for a conflict of interest, and we would be there to back him up.

Then the cancellation texts started coming in. Before I knew it, I was the only one of the five who showed up. My sister was there just because she gave me a ride. She didn’t understand why I was so discouraged and was driven by the fact “Well, we are here now.” She made the signs that I had stalled on. She marched me up to the door and asked “Is this where we are supposed to be?” Then I led her inside ( she was shocked we were actually going into the board meeting) and then to the only open seats, two for us and one to prop up an extra sign. Then she realized we were sitting right behind this man demanding his resignation. The SGA president didn’t read the statement but at the end of the meeting, the board member ran out of the room. He resigned later that day.

I mean, he resigned from the board of trustees and the Forsyth County Board of Elections he did get promoted to the State Board of Elections (ironically to the Ethics Commission) but he resign from the university board of trustees. Maybe it was pre-planned, maybe it was an effective protest (I suspect the latter because he had been appointed to a four-year term and quit three years early). But that changed me. It makes it difficult to do nothing when you have seen that doing something, anything, can change things. On that day the critical mass was two but if either of us hadn’t come it wouldn’t have happened. Not that it couldn’t have happened, I just would not have gone in without my sister pushing me past my feelings of failure and she had no desire to do it except for me.

Photo by Sushil Nash on Unsplash

We have been convinced that we are powerless, that our politics are selected on ballots, at specific times of the year and everything else is over our heads. We are not powerless, but we are neutral on a moving train. That means that inaction becomes momentum towards whatever trends already exist. The rich get richer? The climate gets warmer? Is housing becoming more inaccessible? Doing nothing is not harmless, it’s ignoring the trend that will overtake you. If you are not resisting it, you are adding to the momentum.

Change is possible but people have to do it. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. I know when I look around at the world I am in today, I can see the handiwork of the organizers before me. I can see that we are integrated today because a lot of black college students from around my way decided to do sit-ins. I know that they are regular people like me. It wasn’t everyone but it was the people with the education, ambition, and ability to sacrifice that made it happen. Knowing that these people are just like me and that we live in the wake of their achievements, I know that the future will be made of the achievement and failures of my generation. I can’t be everywhere, I can’t do everything but I know that I am a part of the critical mass and I must do something. If all I have is the will to participate and the ability to show up, that may be enough.