TRISTAN TAYLOR, 37
DETROIT
So day three is Sunday. Sunday, the city of Detroit announces that they’re going to impose a curfew. It is very clear that the curfew is related to just the protesters. And they said that, in a way, but they were also saying that it was a citywide curfew. You had to show what your business was in order to be out—because of the marches Friday and Saturday, continuing into the night, and the resistance that people were giving to the police trying to arrest and beat marchers out of the streets. Because that Friday and Saturday night, the Detroit Police Department had a vicious policy toward the demonstrations at night.
Monday, when people came out, the person who ended up leading the march that day sent people home. And that’s because when people were marching back to the downtown police precinct where the marches have been gathering, they were met with police in riot gear and tanks. And so they were convinced to go home, but people were really angry. They actually didn’t want to go home, but they didn’t know what else to do, because they just knew the curfew was wrong. So they said, we got to oppose the curfew. And we get arrested for opposing the curfew.
People are really outraged to see the force that was used to arrest us— because all we were doing was marching. And because of that, more people showed up the next day. And we had like two hundred people march to oppose the curfew. And that number doubled the day after. And so the city refused to enforce the curfew, and that was a big moment for people. People were on cloud nine and they were like, “Okay, this movement, we can actually achieve something.”
TIMOTHY FINDLEY, 41
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
There was one particular night in the very early days when the mayor, from what I understand, sent the National Guard down to the West End, which is a predominantly Black neighborhood, and that’s when the killing of David McAtee happened. I remember getting the call and going down to 26th and Broadway. A large crowd had already started to gather. His body had stayed
41