Students from Ohio University joined hundreds from all over the country in Ferguson, Missouri last weekend to protest racism and how police treat black people.
Kelli Oliver, a senior studying commercial photography and OU Student Senate’s minority affairs commissioner, helped organized the trip to Ferguson. Students marched and protested last Saturday until after midnight, she said.
“We saw a serious divide of wealth that is common in most large cities,” Oliver said. “St. Louis was large and wealthy and nice, and the suburbs around it are much lower class. It is segregated.”
The continued protests come two months after Michael Brown, a 19-year-old, was shot by police in Ferguson, igniting national protests about law enforcement’s treatment of minorities and drawing attention from around the world to Missouri.
The marches and acts of civil disobedience conducted last weekend were an effort to sustain protests and national attention on Ferguson, said Wesley Lowery, former editor of The Post and a national political reporter at The Washington Post.
“This weekend was a culmination of the last two months and the emotion that’s been building up for the last two months,” Lowery said. “This was them trying to say, ‘This is going to have staying power. This is something we’re gonna try to transition to something bigger.’ ”
Oliver said her experience in Ferguson contrasted greatly with how the media has portrayed the situation.
“The accounts we heard from protesters were really shocking, with racism and how little the community is doing,” she said.
In August, when the protests in Ferguson were drawing national media attention, Kevin Mattson, a professor of contemporary history at OU, heard the voice of his adopted son Jay pleading for a visit to where Brown was shot.
“Ever since the Trayvon Martin slaying we have been talking to Jay about how he may be treated differently than his white friends by certain people, including law enforcement,” said Vicky Mattson, Jay’s mother and Kevin’s wife. “He is now very aware of racial risk factors.”
The family traveled together to see the protests first-hand.
Kevin saw this as an excellent opportunity to gain real-world experience, especially regarding race issues in the U.S.
“It has brought awareness to the white community, nationwide, of issues the black community is always aware of,” Kevin said.
His son Jay, a high schooler, felt he was a part of something bigger than himself when he chanted slogans and waved signs in protest.
“It felt like a whole African-American movement.”
The plight of young African American men is not a local problem but a national one, the Mattsons said.
Initially the family was uncomfortable, but were immediately welcomed by local protesters who shouted, “Ohio’s in the house!”
“We quickly realized there was a gentleman from California, and I also met a pastor from Tennessee,” Kevin said. “The national concern was evident.”
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