The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

Mothers for the Movement

By Jana Shaw 

Editor-in-Chief

Mothers of the Movement was held on September 19th in Merrick hall.

The event endorsed the campaign of Hillary Clinton and featured three black mothers who lost their children from the hands of police.

“I turned my mourning into a movement. I turned my sorrow into strategy,” said Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner.

The other mothers who a attended the event was Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland and Maria Hamilton and mother of Dontre Hamilton.

The three women gather to speak on their children’s death, Clinton’s policies, and the necessity of voting in this year’s election.

The event was mediated by City Coucilman Jamal Fox, who introduced the event by speaking on policies highlighted in Senator Clinton’s platform.

Eliminating cost as a barrier for college enrollment and providing a $25 billion grant to HBCUs and minority institutions were a few Fox stated to appeal to the crowd of students and community leaders.

The powerful table talk of mothers began with Hamilton. Her son suffered from schizophrenia.

“April 30th 2014, Dontre was chilling in the park. He was profiled. He was judged. He was prosecuted and his life was taken.

There was racism in the park that day. There was hate in the park that day,” said his mom as she explained the incident of his death.

He was beaten with a baton by police.  He was struck eight times and then retrieved the baton.

Hamilton posed the question to students, “How many of you have reached for the belt your parents were whipping you with?” Every hand was raised.

“Once that weapon got into my child’s hand he was a threat to the police officer and excessive force was warranted,” explained Hamilton.

Dontre was shot fourteen times.

After her story she talked about the way communities and the country need to handle mental illness.

“I am an advocate for mental health in my city,” said Hamilton.

“We have a de-escalation bill and a mental health bill that we are working on with Hillary where we have behavioral health people going out to these police calls,” said Hamilton.

Carr followed on the stance of police reform. She started her talk by mentioning how proud she was to be at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University because it is her mother is an alumna.

Eric Garner was choked to death by police in New York. “That was a day I’ll never forget as long as I live,” said Carr.

She spoke to her son the morning of his death about a family reunion they were to attend that weekend. “I keep replaying that conversation in my mind… trying to hang on to it,” said Hamilton. “They killed my joy, they stole my spirit.”

“I am out here trying to save other people’s children because we are tired of losing a generation because were are being profile,” said Carr

Police were not indicted for Garner’s death. “Hilary his going to fight for us… asked [the mothers] how can I help you,” said Carr.

“Hold police accountable,” said Carr. “Me and twelve other mothers went to the governor and told [him] we want an executive order for a special prosecutor… it takes it out of the hands of the local D.A. and puts it in the hands of the attorney general,” said Carr as she talked police reform.

Geneva Reed-Veal closed the talk with a dynamic and energetic speech on the power of the vote.

She did not introduce her stance on Senator Clinton’s campaign with the story of her daughter, Sandra Bland’s death. She started with praise of Clinton.

“She is the secretary and a former first lady, she’s qualified,” said Reed-Veal.

“If you are not voting-don’t say nothing, don’t complain, “said Reed-Veal.

After the talk, the event was open for a line of questions. Due to time, Fox cut the amount of question participation to two students.

She began to talk about Black Lives Matter and touched on her experience after her daughter’s death.

“Show the folk that you’re your vote is going to show that black lives matter,” said Reed-Veel.

Fox finished with chants of “Were stronger together and Aggies Do. He then opened the floor to questions.

Mothers of the Movement, was a full to capacity event. Each mother captivated the attention of the audience with the power, pain and hope that graced their stories.

The event acted to motivate folks to vote as well as register them, because in the words of Ms. Carr, “stupidity is on the ballot.”

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