Opinion by Cornell William Brooks (STH ’87) on “The lessons of Beulah Mae Donald, the mother who took down the Klan”

This article was originally published by CNN on April 11, 2021, and the article can be found here.

America is transfixed and yet traumatized by the Derek Chauvin trial in the killing of George Floyd. As a nation, we’ve been here so many times before.

Racial disparities are so great in this country that police shootings are a leading cause of death among Black men. In 2014, a ProPublica analysis found that Black male teenagers are 21 times more likely than their White counterparts to be fatally shot by police.

Few officers are ever charged, let alone convicted. As human lives are reduced to hashtags in our Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and Instagram posts, our worried hearts wonder if justice is even possible.

But there is reason to believe that it is. As a professor of social justice advocacy and leadership, I have found inspiration in the stories of past leaders who have confronted racial injustice without wavering. These leaders and role models are not always people with titles like CEO, executive director, or president — in fact, they often have titles like “activist,” “citizen,” or quite simply, “mother.”

To continue reading this story, click here.