On January 4, 2008, Tarika Wilson, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot by Lima, Ohio, police officer Joseph Chavalia. She was unarmed and holding her one-year-old son, who was injured by the shot that killed his mother. The shooting, and the subsequent acquittal of the officer, highlighted … Read MoreTarika Wilson (1981-2008)
On June 14, 2012, Shantel Davis, a 23-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot by New York City, New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Phil Atkins. She was unarmed, and her death occurred while the national discussion of police brutality was gaining publicity in the wake of similar killings. That … Read MoreShantel Davis (1989-2012)
On October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old African American teenager, was shot 16 times within 14 seconds by Jason Van Dyke, a 36-year-old white Chicago, Illinois policeman. McDonald’s death was another catalyst for the growing national Black Lives Matter Movement. It also had significant local ramifications including the defeat … Read MoreLaquan McDonald (1997-2014)
The Charlotte Riot of 2016 was a protest that lasted for three days and came in the wake of the Keith Lamont Scott shooting. Beginning on September 20, the riot resulted in violence with one protester killed and numerous injured police officers. On September 20, a black Charlotte-Mecklenburg police … Read MoreCharlotte Riot of 2016
By the 1920s lynchings of African Americans had become a standard practice across the nation. The multiple lynchings in Duluth, Minnesota, however, represent the farthest north this practice reached. The John Robinson Circus made its way to Duluth on June 14, 1920, for a parade and one-day performance. … Read MoreThe Duluth Lynchings (1920)
Akai Gurley was tragically and senselessly killed while walking down the stairwell of his apartment building with his girlfriend. His death, like the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown, helped inspire and propel the Black Lives Matter Movement. Gurley was 28 years of age at the time … Read MoreAkai Kareem Gurley (1986-2014)
The shooting death of nineteen-year-old Timothy DeWayne Thomas, Jr. by Cincinnati, Ohio Police Department Patrolmen Stephen Roach during an attempted arrest for non-violent misdemeanors in April 2001, focused national attention on the deaths of unarmed black men and women at the hands of police and security guards. Thomas’s death … Read MoreTimothy DeWayne Thomas, Jr. (1981-2001)
On August 7, 1930, a mob of ten to fifteen thousand whites abducted three young black men from the jail in Marion, Indiana, lynching Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Sixteen-year-old James Cameron narrowly survived after being beaten by the mob. Lawrence Beitler’s photograph of the two victims’ hanging bodies … Read MoreMarion, Indiana Lynching (1930)
Fifty-eight-year old Gregory Gunn was walking home when a confrontation with a Montgomery, Alabama police officer caused the officer to shoot Gunn in front of his home. With his death, Gunn became one of the oldest victims in an incident that would be later publicized by the Black Lives … Read MoreGregory Gunn (1958-2016)
The Charleston Church Massacre took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015. Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, killed nine people including the senior pastor and South Carolina State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney during a prayer service at the … Read MoreThe Charleston Church Massacre (2015)
