Turning Horror Into Hope
Across the country we are seeing women and more people of color who are taking the leap, and jumping into the political deep sea. Most recently, Lucy McBath has decided to get her feet wet, and is running for U.S. Congress for the state of Georgia’s 6th Congressional district. McBath’s mission is to fight for the legacy of her son, Jordan Davis, and fight for national gun reform.
McBath is a national spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense for America. Most importantly, she’s a mother and a two-time breast cancer survivor – so if anyone is a fighter, it’s definitely Lucy McBath. However, she is best known as the mother of Jordan Davis.
She described Jordan and fun, active and a kid who wanted to know about everything. If you remember, 17 year-old Jordan was murdered by a white man, because he refused to turn down the music in a vehicle.
In an interview with Now This Politics, McBath says she was advised by another woman to wait and not run for Congress. McBath responded, “Ithink you just get to a point where you stop waiting for someone else to do it, and say ‘why not me?“
As the daughter of two civil rights era activists who marched alongside her parents during this era, McBath says she was living a somewhat normal life, until the senseless murder of her son. She says the murder of Jordan sparked something that was always there, but had not been sparked in some time.
McBath was considered the dark horse, she came into the race last, didn’t have all of the resources in comparison to the other candidates, and was the only minority female running. Despite it all, she was able to clench the nomination and is now in the running to take her seat on the House floor. In the Now This interview, McBath says that black woman have been the backbone of this country and “our experiences give great credibility to what’s possible for young women and little girls.”
“You feel for her as a mother,” said Cheryl Brown, 60, in a New York Times interview. “Years before meeting Ms. McBath, Brown kept a Jet Magazine cover featuring Jordan Davis at her Atlanta-area home. The cover read, “Is Your Child Next?,” and it resonated with Ms. Brown because she, too, fears her black son could fall victim to racist violence.“
Lucy McBath’s heart is definitely in her campaign, and in her purpose. Let’s hope she wins in the upcoming Georgia election, and we pray that through her, Jordan Davis’ legacy will continue.
Source: NowThis and NY Times
Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion
