By Michael Bell
The photo was taken by Goucher College student Ester Grossman
Sean Bell. Rekia Boyd. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Mike Brown. Ezeli Ford. Oscar Grant. John Crawford III. Freddie Gray.
These are all names that once followed a hashtag.
These are the names of African American men and women who have died at the hands of the police.
These are the names that motivate Jordan Johnson to take action.
Johnson—a student at Goucher College who worked with Korey Johnson and John Gillespie Jr. of Towson University to bring Baltimore-area college students to downtown last week to join the peaceful protests there against police brutality – said the social media hashtag has become the final resting place of far too many African Americans.
She wants to use those hashtags as a way to fight for social justice through social media.
“As college students, the value of the protest goes up when more white bodies are out there,” Johnson said. “Because of us being college students, we will be more protected than any other group will be.”
She said the significance of college students marching for peace can be a moving sentiment. She said the diversity of the crowds in Baltimore was breathtaking because the protests were filled with people who have both been oppressed and have fought for the safety of others. Johnson said that while the march was a great sight, it is only the beginning of a larger movement in which she plans to unite the leaders from each college in Maryland to mobilize activists to bring about change.
Johnson compared today’s movement to that of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a 1960s group that conducted student-led protests against segregation.
“Try to get these colleges together. Try to get their main leaders. We need leaders who can mobilize a lot of people and get them into one place,” Johnson said. “This revolution is going to be led by the youth.”
So far, Johnson has united Goucher College, MICA, Towson, Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University to participate in this new-age civil rights movement.
To ensure effectiveness, Johnson conducted two training sessions, teaching students how to respond to certain situations and teaching white students to defer to black leadership during the protests.
“White students are a part of civil society,” Johnson said. “They are allowed to protest their opinions and they will be listened to. Unfortunately for the black subjects, because we are on the outskirts of civil society, that is not possible for us.”
Johnson said she feels that the march was successful.
Being a Baltimore native, the perspective is different for Johnson than it is for most who participated in the protests and marches. Johnson said that while she loves her city, the hardest part was being a college student, not knowing exactly where to begin. That’s why she has tried to be a leader of this new movement.
“Being at Goucher, the culture is, we talk about social justice and activism, so it’s all in theory here. But I was really tired of just talking about theoretical things,” Johnson said.
While the initial march is over, the work is never finished for Johnson. She plans on doing all she can to raise awareness about all types of murders in the black community. Due to the underrepresentation of certain murders in a patriarchal society, Johnson said she is ready to fight for those whose names we will never know.
“One of the main things I’m for is getting women’s names out there, getting Trans names out there and that’s one of the main things I’m going to follow behind,” Johnson said.
This includes using social media to act as a tool for activism, she said.
As hashtags have become gravestones for unarmed blacks killed in America, Johnson said that it will take more gravestones for the country to realize that it is living in a cemetery of a genocide.
Jordan wants to see the names of others who have died at the hands of the police followed by hashtags. Jordan believes the impact of seeing actual names of people who have died behind a hashtag is more powerful than a phrase like “Black Lives Matter.”
“We need more names of people who are out there,” she said. “The hashtags can be beneficial. Black lives matter– that’s great. All black lives matter, that’s great. But when we have people dying, we need more names.”