produced & written by DANIELLE CHARBONNEAU
Cars burning. Billowing smoke. Mists of tear gas. A CVS pharmacy and a senior’s affordable living home engulfed in flames. Cinder blocks crashing through storefront windows and liquor stores ransacked by looters. These are the recent images of the riots in Baltimore, spurred by the death of an African American man, Freddie Gray, who was allegedly fatally injured in police custody.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Watts Riots in Los Angeles — a scene that bore a striking resemblance to the recent Baltimore riots. April also marks an anniversary for the 1992 Race Riots in South Central Los Angeles. And March marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday marches in Selma, AL. Our history is unfortunately littered with events like these.
In March, I visited Selma for Spring Break, where I heard a remarkable woman speak about change. Although her story takes place 50 years ago, it still resonates today.
At the age of 15, Lynda Lowrey was the youngest protester to complete the historic march from Selma to Montgomery alongside Martin Luther King Jr. She was only 13 when she started training in King’s nonviolent philosophy, and 14 when she marched on the Edmund Pettus Bridge during Selma’s Bloody Sunday.
Lowrey told her story to a small crowd of university students at Selma Community Church in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. During that protest, Lowrey was brutally beaten and gassed by Alabama state troopers.
While many remember the Bloody Sunday march as protesting for voting Rights, Lowrey reminded the crowd that they were actually in protest of police brutality – a response to a young man’s murder. Jimmie Lee Jackson was perhaps not so different from Freddie Gray. He was only 27 when state troopers fatally shot him. He was attempting to help his 85-year-old grandmother, Viola Jackson, who was being brutally beaten by billy club.
Hearing Lowrey’s vivid tale of growing up in the Civil Rights movement is tremendously moving; it reminds us that what President Obama said about Baltimore (that this is “not new”) is most certainly true. I can’t help but think of the phrase: “those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.”
Lowrey’s tale, however, also brings a message of hope. She learned, through Dr. King and his teachings, how to practice agape – unconditional love – and to make change using steady, loving confrontation.
[photo by DANIELLE CHARBONNEAU]