PAWNEE, Ill. (AP) - Kayla Adomako admitted she had big concerns about moving back to Pawnee.
She wanted to be closer to her mother and the cost of living was cheaper than Springfield, but she wondered what issues the family makeup might pose in the small, predominantly white community. Adomako’s husband, Kwabena, is Black and their 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter are biracial.
She found out the first week after her family had moved there: the police were called on her children walking their dogs in the neighborhood.
“Our neighbors,” Kayla Adomako said, “later told me that they thought (the dogs) were pit bulls. Not said was, hey, I noticed some Black kids walking around in my neighborhood and I don’t think they’re from here. That was our welcome to Pawnee.”
Adomako and her son, Jaiden, were among 50 or so people at Pawnee’s North Park on June 13 as part of an Education & Action Together (E.A.T.) rally. Several people who came carried Black Lives Matter signs. Some, like Adomako, said they had been to previous protests in Springfield.
E.A.T., which was launched last Sunday, addresses people’s civil rights and interaction with police through teach-ins and listening sessions.
The protests and sessions have sprung up in Springfield and other smaller communities following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Four now-former officers have been charged in Floyd’s death.
One of E.A.T.’s founders, John Keating, said the importance of having events in communities like Pawnee is letting people of color know there are allies in their corner.
“They can look to the people here and know that you’re going to stand next to them,” Keating told the gathering. “If someone says something to you at a gas station that they wouldn’t say in front of their own mother, then that person who is behind them is going to speak up and say that’s not all right, that’s not welcome in this town because we’re inclusive and we’re not going to deal with the hate anymore.”
“The more we can have these conversations, the more we keep learning and adapting,” said Tyrese Thomas of Springfield, also a co-founder of E.A.T. “We have to dissolve the fear and build the trust.
“I’m personally glad I can be part of E.A.T. where we can push that narrative, spread this kind of message and have a platform where people will actually come out and listen.”
Adomako, who said she has attended several protests in Springfield with her children, said she was thrilled when she heard E.A.T. was putting on the program in Pawnee, though “the overall feeling of people in town is that they don’t want this here. (Most people feel) this is a very negative thing.”
Adomako said she has had to have some frank and “terrifying” conversations with her son about living in the town.
“We have had that talk this year about the n-word. We discussed names (he is) being called that are not appropriate,” Adomako said.
There were other talking points: that he can’t wear a hoodie walking down the streets of Pawnee, that he can’t keep his hands in his pockets when he’s at a store, to look a police officer in eye, keep his hands where the officer can see them and be respectful and polite.
“Those are the things I go to bed at night worried about,” Adomako admitted. “It’s terrifying for me as a mother to know we live in a world and a society where these are actual conversations I have to have with my son, that people see him as a threat. My sweet boy who I raised into an amazing human being, that people see him as a threat just by the color of his skin.”
Joe Roth grew up in Pawnee, but recently moved to Springfield for the second time about a month ago. He’s also been to several of the protests in Springfield and made it a point to come out to a Taylorville rally.
“Because I’ve lived here, I felt I should come back,” Roth said, carrying a Black Lives Matter sign. “This is where I grew up and I want to be able to show people who have a similar mindset that there are other people, like you, who can speak up.
“There are always people in these small towns who are on the right side, who want to speak up, but they’re deafened by the larger community of people who are opposing the things they’re saying.”
William Crawford of Springfield, who has been a mainstay at the Springfield protests, spoke passionately about living as a Black man in these times.
“We’ve been fighting for justice for years,” Crawford told the crowd. “We’re tired of not getting the justice we so rightly deserve. That’s why we’ve been out here protesting every single day
“I’ve been held down with fear for years. I got rid of that fear the first day I started protesting. That fear washed away and has not come back because I know if I let it come back in, I’m going to back to the same things I was doing before. I didn’t want to be on the streets. I didn’t want to be inside of a cell. I’ve seen what the streets do to people. I had to make a choice between violence or choosing this (other) path.”
Crawford admitted that seeing the police officer’s knee on Floyd’s neck and hearing Floyd’s pleas was “the worst feeling I ever felt.
“I got to the point,” Crawford added, “that I’m tired of carrying fear. I’m tired of waking up every single day and thinking to myself, what’s going to happen next?
“At this point, we’re hurt. We’re broken and we’re tired. We’re really tired of being divided for so many years, being shut out, being left out, not being brought to the conversation, like we’re supposed to be. We’re not trying to take over white culture. We’re trying to have equality because that’s what we deserve.
“We’ve been fighting for equality for years and we shouldn’t have to keep fighting if you just keep pushing us out of the way like we don’t matter.”
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Source: The (Springfield) State Journal-Register, https://bit.ly/2B96VDh
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