A coalition of activists and the organizations they represent converged Monday on Burlington’s North Park to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day while taking the time to announce a new coalition among most of the local activist groups.
This new coalition, called the Revolutionary Love Coalition, is made up of a number of groups including Down Home, Alamance Alliance for Justice, People for Change, Future Alamance, Alamance Agents for Change, Forward Motion Alamance, Conscious Connection, Armed Margins, and Justice for the Next Generation, among others.
“The Revolutionary Love Coalition represents several local groups who have led nonviolent efforts in court square to hold (Alamance County) Sheriff Terry Johnson accountable for the COVID outbreak at his detention center, draw attention to decades of racial injustice in Alamance County, and remove the outdated monument to the Confederacy from downtown Graham, where tensions have festered for months,” reads a statement from event organizers.
Prior to formally announcing the new coalition, event-goers joined Jason Crazy Bear Keck and his wife Crystal Cavalier-Keck in a ritual called a land acknowledgment.
“It’s when we honor the ancestors of the land,” Keck said, adding that the number of federally recognized tribes doesn’t come close to amounting to the actual number of tribes there are. “The reason you heard of Cherokee and Apache is because all of those little bands had to come together just to survive.”
Both Jason Keck and his wife are no strangers to activism work. Jason Keck said, originally, he didn’t plan to participate in Monday’s event. He changed his mind when he learned what the event was all about.
“We ask that this day spark an energy, a light and a breath that continues on so that our community can become a pebble and ripple out to all of those movements across the world,” Jason Keck said during the ceremony.
Following the ceremony, each of the participating groups sent a representative to speak on its behalf. Speakers touched on a number of topics including the months-long effort to get Graham’s Confederate Statue removed, the upcoming election and the legal issues many have had to face because of their efforts. A common thread among many of the activists was the realization of how deeply the community needs change.
“Whenever I look at that statue, it breaks my heart apart because I know exactly what that means,” said Sylvester Allen, who spoke on behalf of Forward Motion Alamance. “It’s time for a replacement. It’s time for Alamance County to look completely different than it does.”
Faith Cook, the mother of a teenager who was almost run over by a motorist earlier in the summer, also spoke at the event.
“I moved from Virginia five and a half years ago,” Cook said, adding that she settled in Alamance for a number of reasons. “We started in Alamance County and I promise you that was not by mistake.”
Cook described in detail the events in which a motorist allegedly tried to hit her daughter and a friend.
“If it was not for a van and a trash can my daughter would not be here today,” Cook said. “I was so angry, I didn’t even get in my car. I got the phone call from the … officer who actually saw it happen, from the Graham police department. She witnessed this happen. I got the call from her and I was so angry that I walked to find my child. I walked to my baby. It was that moment that I said, 'Alamance County, guess what? I’m here, I’m here for my child. … I’m here for my future. I’m here for her future. I’m here for the community.'”
Being present and active was one of the key takeaways from keynote speaker Rev. Gregory Drumwright.
“This is not a community that is divided because of religion. This is a community that has come together because of righteousness,” Drumwright said, adding that the Graham community should be more supportive of activists. “There are too many churches around Courthouse Square. There are too many community establishments around Courthouse Square for us to be running away to our cars. There should be dozens of businesses providing sanctuary for us because we are not tired, we are not done … we are going to continue to run white supremacy out of this town.”
