Mothers Stand Against Police Shootings of Blacks

May 11, 2015

Mothers Stand Against Police Shootings of Blacks

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Toya Graham has been recognized for publicly reprimanding her son while he was participating in the Baltimore riots. (Facebook photo)

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

 (TriceEdneyWire.com) - What do Toya Graham, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Maryland National Guard Major Gen. Linda Singh and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch have in common?

They are African-American mothers who share similar sentiments about the shootings of Black people by police officers.  All four women have held a prominent role in not only bringing justice to the forefront in Baltimore in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, but also bringing about peace.

“To those who are angry, hurt, I urge you to channel energy peacefully,” Mosby told NBC on May 1. “I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace.’ However your peace is severely needed. To officers, these accusations are not an indictment of the entire force.”

Mosby is a mother of two girls, who has a family of law enforcers. However, according to news reports she is keen on holding officers accountable for their actions. Mosby, lead Maryland prosecutor in the case, filed charges against the six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Gray.

Gray, 25, died on April 19 from a spinal cord injury while he was in police custody.  It sparked a massive riot in Baltimore, Md. with hundreds of young Black Americans expressing their anger and frustration with a justice system that unfairly and improperly targets them.

Rawlings-Blake led and continues to lead Baltimore through riots, burnings, media turmoil and enforced curfews. On May 4 the city’s mandatory curfew was lifted.

According to CNN, “the goal,’ said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ‘has always been to not have the curfew in place a single day longer than was necessary.”

Lynch, new to the job, travelled to Baltimore May 5 to meet with city officials, members of Congress, law enforcement officials, as well as faith and community leaders, CNN reported.

Graham, a concerned Baltimore mother who caught her son throwing rocks at police has also staked a claim in the fight for justice and safety of Black citizens. Titled as “Mother of the Year” for what some say as adhering to the Black mammy stereotype, but as others say, truly caring for her son, she showed not only passion but resembled Black mothers – really all mothers – in America through her fear of losing a child.

“He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”

As shown by the mothers, racist actions spur trauma for all income levels as numerous Black people have been shot by police forces across the country. Whether it is Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Dante Parker, Yvette Smith or any one of the several dozens of Blacks killed, the trauma affects us all, no matter religion, race, creed, socioeconomic status or income. In fact, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was born in West Baltimore, Gray’s neighborhood.

President Obama also echoed the same sentiments as the mothers on May 4 during a press conference on the launch of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance in Bronx, N.Y.

“I want you to know you matter,” he said. “We are one people and we need each other. We should love each and every one of our kids and we should show that love.”