From protest lines to tornado relief, BLM has always shown up

There are many quotes about showing up, from the anonymously sourced, “The world is run by those who show up” to Woody Allen’s “90% of success is showing up,” to Aaron Sorkin’s “Decisions are made by those who show up.” What all these quotes have in common is the importance of being present.

Anyone who has faced a personal trial or tragedy knows that you remember who was there to help and support you — as well as who wasn’t. As a frontline activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, I have witnessed this repeatedly.

That’s why I must respond to the recent op-ed in the Post-Dispatch that asked, “Where was BLM?”

I have an answer: They have been showing up every day. 

Sometimes, being a part of the movement means rinsing tear gas from a community member’s eyes, and sometimes it means wiping tears from a community member who lost their home … Sometimes it means raising bail funds, and sometimes it means raising construction funds.

When Ferguson erupted after Michael Brown’s murder, Kayla Reed, Ohun Ashe, Tef Poe, Mike Avery, Karissa Whitted, Kristian Blackmon, Alderman Alisha Sonnier, Shellie Robinson, and former Councilwoman Fran Griffin and others organized everything from legal support to bail funds to community meetings to policy advocacy.

These weren’t just protesters; they were builders, organizers, and leaders who understood that fighting for Black lives meant fighting for the wholeness of our community.

When the tornado ripped through our city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, many of the same organizers from Ferguson didn’t hesitate.

Kayla Reed and her organization, Action St. Louis, in partnership with Ohun Ashe and her organization, For the Culture, immediately organized volunteers and started building platforms to amplify Black voices demanding that city resources be used quickly and equitably.

Tef Poe and Crow Life Records poured resources into community resilience through music. 

Mike Avery and Operation ANY MEANS Necessary turned words into direct action, organizing construction work every day since the tornado hit.

Shellie Robinson and Fran Griffin created a resource hub, located within the heart of the destruction, where tornado victims could find food, resources, and community to help get them through this disaster.

Karissa, Kristian, and Alisha Sonnier stepped up again, organizing money, volunteers, and relief efforts with the same dedication they brought to fighting police violence. This list is just some of the countless movement leaders, supporters, and believers who showed up. 

This consistency exposes the false contradiction that critics try to create. The BLM movement has always been about holistically supporting, loving, and being there for our community. Just because police violence sparked the movement, doesn’t mean it ended once that moment ended. Sometimes, being a part of the movement means rinsing tear gas from a community member’s eyes, and sometimes it means wiping tears from a community member who lost their home. 

Sometimes it means raising bail funds, and sometimes it means raising construction funds. 

Sometimes it means helping a mother with childcare so she can attend a community meeting to advocate for better policing, and sometimes it means helping her with childcare so she can advocate for more city funds for tornado victims.

There are no contradictions here, no twisting of words, and no tricky semantics — the BLM movement means supporting Black people through every crisis or injustice they face.

To see this yourself, look at the photos of tornado relief volunteers if you want proof that the BLM movement showed up. It’s like a family reunion; the same faces that demanded justice for Michael Brown, the same hands that held signs calling for police accountability (which are now holding hammers and nails), the same hands holding petitions and fundraising forms, the same hands rebuilding what the storm destroyed.

I am grateful to be surrounded by BLM movement leaders who have consistently shown up, no matter what the challenge and no matter what the current moment demands.

That is the movement I know, the movement I wholeheartedly love, and the movement that continues to fight for our community when the cameras are gone and the headlines have moved on.

Rasheen Aldridge is alderman for the 14th Ward in St. Louis.