After Michael Brown Jr. was killed by police last year, Ayanna Delaine – a young mother and protestor – had the conversation that every black mother dreaded having with her black son. She had to explain what happened to Brown.
Her voice shook with emotion as she spoke during a March 28 discussion on Ferguson, hosted by the National Bar Association.
“He looked me in my eyes, and he asked me, ‘Mommy, am I going to be next?’” she said shaking her head and letting her tears fall. “That is the hardest thing to hear from your child.”
Mothers whose children had been killed by police – including Toni Ball (mother of Cary Ball Jr.) and Syretta Myers (VonDerrit Myers Jr.’s mother) – were honored with reserved seating in the front row. Their tears shortly followed Delaine’s, along with those of many audience members and panelists.
“There is nothing in this world that can stop me from being out there,” said Delaine, who has been on the frontlines of the Ferguson movement since August 9, when Brown was shot and killed by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. “My baby shouldn’t have to ask those questions. He shouldn’t even have to understand that.”
Anita Jones Mack, a single mother and Ferguson protestor, said the same thing about her need to fight for her son’s future. The other panelists – including Cornel West – and the audience gave the young mothers a standing ovation for their bravery and perseverance.
In his remarks, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver emphasized how important it is to have the protestors on the ground putting pressure on authorities, coupled with the efforts of lawyers at the bar association to make systematic changes.
“It is at darkness that the stars come out,” he said. “What we’ve had was, the darkness of Ferguson brought out some stars. We need them (pointing to the protestors); we need attorneys; we need legislators. We need people committed to the struggle, and not just to be on the evening news.”
The panel, titled “The Unfinished Business of Charles Hamilton Houston: Ferguson where do we go from here,” came on the last day of the association’s 35th annual mid-year conference and Gertrude E. Rush dinner. The oldest and largest association of its kind, the National Bar represents more than 65,000 predominately African-American lawyers, judges, educators and law students.
In a time when many organizations and universities are holding panels on Ferguson, the association’s panel was arguably one of the most varied and representative of the struggle yet. The nine panelists – all black – included Cleaver, West, protest leader Bishop Derrick Robinson, the two protest mothers, Carlos Ball (brother of Cary Ball Jr.), one representative from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Florida, Ferguson native John Gaskin III of NAACP St. Louis County and a representative from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
West spoke about the need to show young people the same love that “older folks” showed them during the civil rights movement.
“The only reason we are standing is because the older folks loved us and cared for us,” he said.
He specifically pointed to Pamela Meanes, president of the association, and said, “That’s what so magnificent about the leadership of my dear sister Pamela. She wants the young folks to know, ‘I’m part of the love train that Curtis Mayfield was singing about. Don’t need no ticket just get on the love train.’”
From the audience, Meanes jumped out of her seat and yelled, “That’s right,” as the full room cheered loudly.
Janel George, education policy counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., spoke about how school discipline practices for African–American children mirror the disparity in punishment that the black community receives from the police and courts.
Black children without disabilities are suspended at three times the rate of their white counterparts, George said. However, more than four years of research shows that African-American children do not misbehave more frequently or more severely than their white peers, she said. Oftentimes they are suspended for offenses such as dress-code violations.
Suspensions academically set back children in school and prevent them from being able to compete for high-wage jobs, she said.
“That’s why things like suspensions, expulsions and school discipline matter,” she said.
Veronica Harrell-James, U.S. deputy chief attorney for the Southern District of Florida in the U.S. Attorney’s office, said when she heard about Brown’s death, she thought, “It’s just the same old thing all over again.”
Harrell-James is from Miami – the home state of Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when he was killed by neighborhood vigilante in 2012.
“I was disturbed” by the Department of Justice’s announcement earlier this year, she said. Two days before the three-year anniversary of Martin’s death the department announced that it would not proceed in criminal charges against George Zimmerman, the vigilante who shot and killed the teen.
And though the headlines read that DOJ had cleared Zimmerman, she said what they should have said was that the department faces meeting a really “high bar” when proceeding with criminal charges.
Carlos Ball spoke the similarities between the deaths of Brown and his brother, who was killed by police in St. Louis City on April 24, 2013. Carlos said his brother was shot a total of 21 times, handcuffed and dragged to the curb.
“We weren’t even notified,” Carlos said. “We didn’t even know until my little sister saw it on the news the next day. They actually never told us. We had to call the city morgue ourselves, that’s how we were able to identify that my brother had been killed.”
So when August came, he said, “It was my duty to get out there.”
During Brown’s funeral, he said, “His mother’s face reminded me so much of my mother’s face. His mother did the same thing my other did, she just rocked the whole time.”
Brown’s father let out a huge roar before they left, just like his did, he said. The reason they fight is because black people, men in particular, are often killed immediately rather than getting their day in court, he said.
“I want to be a grandfather,” he said. “I want to see young kids to where they can get justice. All we want is our due process. If I do something wrong, take me to jail. Do not stand there and hold court on me.”
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