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HOPE AND PESSIMISM

GLEN RAY, SR., 68 ANNISTON, ALABAMA

I was telling people, this year is the year of change. I didn’t know this was gonna happen, but I know that there was some things gonna happen this year because it had been written. But there has to be a sacrifice before a resurrection. Somebody’s got to sacrifice and this is what’s going on right now. That there have been so many Black people getting killed for no just cause, and we all got our children. Just like if the Lord sends Moses down to tell Pharaoh to let my people go, you’re not gonna keep on misusing God’s people. Somebody’s gonna come and tell you to let my people go. It’s time for a change! And I believe in that. I don’t look at Black and white. I’m looking at wrong and right. And I tell people that everybody that marched with Dr. King, you understand, patting him on the back, were talking about him on the corner. You know, he used to come to the city of Anniston when we had a mass meeting. I was very young, and we was going to a mass meeting and, I’m telling you right now, that old church wasn’t full when he came. He didn’t have the name then, they were just strategizing and getting protests together. I used to go down in Montgomery and sleep on the fairgrounds in little carts and stuff, looking up at the stars, to get up and march the next day. But I tell people, I understand that—hey, I’m gonna fight for my people. And I’m damn sure gonna fight for my family. That’s the way I am. And so if you want me to sit down and shut up, do what’s right.

JUSTIN WILLIAMS, 37

BALTIMORE

It has clicked in a way that it hasn’t in the past, where, like, during the Colin Kaepernick protests—I guess that was 2016—the Ravens were talking about getting him and they were sort of talking about it, and they were like, “Oh, I wouldn’t want Colin Kaepernick!” And I explained to people, “Well, he’s

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