Kimberly Williams Crenshaw

Yeah.

that I was able to find out a little more.

I didn't know that the story had been covered from coast to coast.

I didn't know that there was a suspect that had been brought in.

I didn't know that the local police said that charges were imminent.

And I didn't know that suddenly all that just disappeared until within the last couple of years where I was able to read about it.

And then reading these stories about the possibility of finding some kind of justice and accountability and then the fact that it just went away and there was no investigation after that.

And then later when my mom tried to, they said that the records had been destroyed.

knowing that she as a mother could do nothing to seek justice for her son, that just broke my heart all over again because I know how that must have felt.

She couldn't protect him, and then she couldn't see to it that justice was served.

I've struggled with this, especially later in life when I've heard about how grief can be that shadow and that there are ways of getting beyond it.

And I believe that there are possibilities there, but I also believe that for us to be able to hold on to the imperative of justice, for us to realize that our struggle is to be agents in our own life, and that any moment can bring justice.

conditions, it can bring a dynamic that you don't see coming and that you cannot protect yourself against.

That's, I think, what made it easier for me to see the links between the past that we sometimes want to believe that we are no longer living in and the current moment.

So growing up and knowing about

lynching, knowing about how successful you can be as a black business owner.

And because of that success, you could lose your life.

Or growing up knowing about Tulsa, how a community could survive and thrive.

And because of that success,

you stand to lose everything.