Tanoah Pierre didn't tell her family when she headed out to join demonstrators in downtown Boston late last May. She knew her relatives would be concerned about the coronavirus or the possibility that violence might break out and try to discourage her from going.
But with the video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck already sparking massive protests in cities around the country, talking with friends and posting on social media felt insufficient.
“I need to be out there,” she recalled telling herself, “even if it’s just walk out there, and, I don’t know, scream or yell or just repeat what everybody else is saying.”