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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThere is a difference between us and them.
On June 22, 1996, a group of 17 Ku Klux Klan members met in the city hall of Ann Arbor, Michigan fully clothed in hate robes. With intention to hold a rally, they were met with an angry group of 300 protestors who wanted them to know they werent welcome. In the midst of the protestors, majority black, someone spotted a middle-aged white man wearing a Confederate t-shirt. Through his clothes and SS tattoo, it appeared that he was a white supremacist.
Once his presence was made known, a crowd of angry people chased him down and began to beat him in the streets, one yelling Kill the Nazi. While there were policeman with gas masks and riot gear protecting the Klansman who wore full garb on the other side of the fence, there was no one protecting the man who chose to stand on the same side as the protestors to observe, while he wore a symbol that represented racism on his shirt.
After the man was on the ground, being kicked and beaten with wooden sticks, 18-year-old Keshia Thomas, a black woman, threw her body over his and protected the man from the beating.
http://blackamericaweb.com/180424/little-known-black-history-fact-keisha-thomas/
The man in the green tee shirt is seen here taking the first photograph.
I never heard of Keshia Thomas before.
Mister Ed
(5,944 posts)I remember seeing a video clip of this incident as a closing trailer on one of the three major-network nightly news programs one night in the 90's. I couldn't remember what year, or which network.
What I do remember is the anguished voice of the young woman as she barreled through that knot of people who had surrounded the neo-Nazi, and were kicking him as he lay on the ground. "Sto-o-o-o-p!", she wailed as she sprawled over his prostrate form, "You're hurting him!"
I don't know when I've ever seen anything more touchingly, profoundly human in my life.
xfundy
(5,105 posts)Racism is now running as hot and free as it ever did in the USA. Courageous woman, armed with humanity. She deserves a medal, or at least decent healthcare and a place to live in peace and tranquility.
sheshe2
(83,927 posts)Keshia Thomas never knew that man she saved, nor did she seek him out for thanks. However, a few months later, the mans son thanked her in a coffee shop.
The images of the incident will live on, capturing the bravery of a high school girl who saved someone who may not have saved her in the same situation.
http://blackamericaweb.com/180424/little-known-black-history-fact-keisha-thomas/2/
Thank you rug for a very important thread.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)TroglodyteScholar
(5,477 posts)I admire her, but I'm sad that this is somehow exceptional.