KENTUCKY ACTIVISTS CHANGE THE NARRATIVE

Despite what local and national coverage may suggest, Kentucky has fostered an architecture of productive, peaceful protest. In light of the nationwide demonstrations protesting police violence that led to the murders of George Floyd and Louisville’s own Breonna Taylor, Kentuckians of all backgrounds are finding new ways to elevate their communities.

Illustration: August Northcut for Kentucky to the World // Background Photography: Protests in Downtown Louisville on June 5, 2020 by Chris Jenner

Robert Bell and a New Generation of Protest

An experienced activist and current candidate for Louisville’s 4th District Metro Council seat, Robert Bell has embraced this watershed moment. In his career promoting social and racial justice, he’s at times “felt like screaming into the ether.” This time is radically different, though. He remarked that a lot “of the movement that’s happening, the activities that are happening, are not being done by people who are self-identified activists.”

Robert Bell courtesy of The Courier Journal

Instead, the majority of the protests happening right now are “people who are trying some of these things out for the first time who have never gone to a protest, gone to a rally ever, might have never signed a petition.”

Bell has taken immense pride in the way much of the city has responded to and acted in the demonstrations. “It’s not just one group leading the charge,” he said, “and not one particular set of ideologies that are leading things.” Instead, many voices and perspectives are informing peaceful and forward-thinking protest.

He finds this to be a learning moment for many, too. As many come together, he’s noticed that “There’s a great sense of camaraderie, of mutual aid, of people who have never been to one part of town going to that part of town, and experiencing to some degree what it’s like for some people to live on the other side of the tracks.” But what he finds most remarkable right now is just “how many people are participating in this and in all the different ways they are “participating.”

Finally, Bell maintains that Kentucky has a long history of activism and social movements. With “some legend in social change history from here,” he isn’t as surprised by the enthusiasm displayed by his community. Still, he notes this moment highlights that there is room for significant and lasting progress in both Louisville and the Commonwealth.

“Depending on what frame of reference you have, you might think of it as a more cosmopolitan place or you might think of it as a, let’s say, socially-backward sort of place. And you know honestly it’s been “both/and” for a long time; and the sort of inherent long-harbored, long-festering contradictions and problems in this city have come to the forefront in a pretty spectacular and sometimes heart-warming and sometimes extremely scary way over the past few weeks. And I think that’s what the world is seeing.”

New Voices, New Perspectives

As Bell rightly noticed, new voices and perspectives are motivating – and sometimes leading – demonstrations across the country. One such new voice in the Commonwealth is Kayla Meisner, a recent graduate of the University of Louisville’s Speed School in bioengineering. Taking on additional roles and responsibilities in protests for justice for Breonna Taylor, Meisner currently balances organizing protests with her role on a team actively working toward a COVID-19 vaccine at U of L.

Courtesy of Cameron Whaley

Before demonstrations began on Thursday, May 28, Meisner had no experience in activism or organizing. She and her boyfriend celebrated their anniversary that day when footage of George Floyd’s murder captured the attention of the nation. “One of our goals from the past year was to get more involved,” she stated. “And then this happens. That was what was so surreal on Thursday: it was our anniversary, we had dinner, and then we see this.”

Horrified by the images circulated on both news and social media, Meisner took to the streets in downtown Louisville the following day. After the demonstration was met with riot police tactics, Meisner realized she didn’t “want to be tear gassed every day. Like I want to be able to protest.”

Yearning to be active in the movement but also for safety, Meisner decided to organize and mobilize a protest in an unexpected part of town: the Saint Matthews neighborhood, which is located in an eastern, predominantly white area of Louisville. Equipped with succinct but powerful messages on signs and fliers outlining demands on local public officials, she organized a group to protest at the corner of Shelbyville Road and Breckenridge Lane.

“To me, protesting is changing people’s minds more than anything. It’s enacting change, not just screaming about it. My whole thing is the educational piece, which is why these fliers are huge. We’re basically equipping people with knowledge. What they do with that knowledge is their choice, but I feel like people will agree with us if they understand what we’re talking about. And that’s not going to get across in a tear gassed conversation. ”

Meisner’s group in these East End protests has been met primarily with enthusiasm and support from fellow protestors, passersby, and even the Saint Matthews police. She approaches this difficult moment and the resultant conversations in the same scientific way that she lives her professional life. “I, for real, will not tell you you are wrong, but I will tell you every fact about why I think I’m right,” she said. “That’s how I argue. I’m going to use every resource in the world to back myself up. If I’m proven wrong, then so be it. But otherwise, I’m trying to prove you wrong or trying to push your thoughts in every conversation I have with anyone about anything.”

In addition to her role in the movement as an educator, she considers herself working “almost as a translator.” As an activist on the frontlines working for social and systemic change, Meisner thinks a major problem in the media coverage of the protests “is that the people who are in it aren’t the ones telling the story.” 

But from this problem, Meisner finds a beautiful opportunity – not only for Louisville but for the state at large: “I’m fighting for those people in order to fight for Louisville. Because once we bring ourselves up to a higher standard, we have to bring everyone else up.”

Changing the Local and National Conversations

The national coverage of the demonstrations so far have concentrated on all the wrong things. Gerry Cooper, a video editor for WHAS-11 TV and owner of Avenue Studios, has found himself in the middle of the protests in Louisville. From his direct experience at the protests as well as his knowledge of the media, he has observed that both national and local media coverage “get so focused on the looting and things like that happening, that they tend to lose focus on what the actual message is behind the main protest.”

Gerry Cooper courtesy of Natiah “Tiah” Jones

At the same time, he thinks that coverage, for the most part, is much more severe and property-damage-focused in other parts of the United States than it is in Kentucky. He maintains that, “we have given the protesters a fairer chance here than I feel like in other cities and in the national news,” but still finds room for improvement. “We need to focus a little more on the message instead of the looting.”

Ultimately, Cooper is impressed by the “many people from different backgrounds out at these protests.” He stated, “it kind of makes me proud that we have people who really want to work to fix the problems in this system. I feel like in our city, with any issue, people are never afraid to go out and protest.”

Marching on the frontlines, Cooper has seen first-hand some unexpected moments of beauty in the protests that arise from the diversity in the demonstrations. For example, as he was marching with many others, armored police with shields and batons approached his group. As the riot police and national guard closed in, someone behind him yelled “white wall!” Suddenly, a “wall of white men and women just formed in front of the protesters and linked arms to be that first wall between us and the riot police and national guard.”

Cooper found this experience both remarkable and devastating.

“It’s kind of eye opening that that’s where we have to go for people to be protected. For white people to protect us with their own bodies because police wouldn’t think twice about harming black and brown people. That’s been the biggest takeaway — we really have a unified city for the most part, in my eyes, that wants to take down the system that we feel is corrupt in LMPD and local and state governments.”

Marching for What’s Right

While the headlines focus on broken windows and acts of vandalism, an anonymous creative collective of Louisvillians has taken this opportunity to shine a light on injustice (literally). As some of you may have seen, proJECT truth has been using a high-powered projector to cast messages and images on large, empty building facades in downtown Louisville to give the message a massive platform. 

Courtesy of proJECT truth

A spokesperson for the group told Kentucky to the World that “protesting and social justice awareness and support comes in all shapes and sizes, ours just happens to come out of a projector. We encourage everyone to find their voice and place in this movement and are just happy to shine some light during these times.” 

Our friends at proJECT truth would like to encourage artists of color to submit their work for consideration for projection at projecttruthlouisville@gmail.com. You can see their recent projections, follow along with new work or ask them questions on their Instagram, @project_truth_louisville.