LaRoeDotCom: Black Lives

It's fine to have a month in which we emphasize the study of Black History and the celebration of Black contributions to the founding and building of this nation. But we cannot limit that study and that celebration to that month.

With that in mind, here's an index of links to photography & reporting I've done over the years in which Black Lives have figured prominently including coverage of Black Lives Matter protests here in Kansas City, MO; commentary I've done on Civil War monuments & Jim Crow lynchings; and some designs I've created to promote the notion that Black Lives Matter.

Commentary & Reporting

About that First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, a sampling of the information available on line regarding the first Black troops in the fight to end slavery and preserve the Union in the Civil War, including a list of the battles in which they fought and a photograph of a memorial placed in the honor
The Lynching of James T. Scott, information regarding the 1923 lynching of James T. Scott in which Missouri University students were implicated ... and a photograph of the memorial plaque placed there in 2016 by the University's Association of Black Graduate and Professional Students, with links to additional materials (22 October 2020)
On Confederate Monuments, commentary on the prevalence and meaning of Confederate Monuments nationally and especially in the Midwest, with links to additional materials (21 October 2020, republished from "Norm In Quarantine")
Brookside Black Lives Matter Brigade (2 August 2020, Facebook post & album (11 photos))
Black Lives Matter: Brookside (13 June 2020, Facebook post & album (5 photos))
Two Arrests at an Otherwise Peaceful Demonstration (31 May 2020, Facebook post & album (32 photos))
Scenes from a Peaceful Demonstration (31 May 2020, Facebook post & album (68 photos))

Photography & Design

Photography

A series of photographs taken at Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Kansas City, MO.

The thumbnails below link to pages in Redbubble where the full photographs can be viewed (and where prints and other products featuring these and other photographs can be purchased).


His Name: George Floyd	I Can't Breathe

Black Lives Matter	Stop Killing Blacks

Graphics

A sampling of LaRoe Design graphics promoting the idea that Black Lives Matter.

The thumbnails below link to pages in Redbubble where t-shirts and other products featuring these and other designs can be purchased.

Black and White American soldiers fought, bled and died beneath a 36-star flag in a war to preserve the Union and end slavery.

That war was fought and won over 150 years ago.

Yet, even today, Americans struggle to recognize and to act as if Black Lives Matter.

Fascist ideology invariably rejects and violently opposes racial equality, social justice and economic equity in explicit favor of White Supremacy.

It is not surpising, therefore, that opponents to fascism routinely demonstrate on behalf of (and should, just as routinely, work in pursuit and support of) racial equality, social justice and economic equity.

Taking action to ensure that Black Lives Matter is inherently anti-fascist.

A very short excerpt from a favorite poem by Langston Hughes laid out against a modern, albeit distressed, 50-star American flag.

O, let America be America again -
The land that never has been yet -
And yet must be - the land where every man is free.

Hughes, an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, spoke to the love that African Americans bore and bear the United States, a land that promises so much and has yet to fully deliver on that promise.