{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/hd7np1zm49/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Oral history interview with Imara Bradley"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/212/original/LOHI_aviarybanner2.jpg?1741032082","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["11/19/21"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Imara Bradley was born in Greensboro, North Carolina before moving to Summerville and the greater Charleston area, South Carolina. A other of two, she works as an executive director of a non-profit, small business owner, and a crystal and chakra healer. The tragedies of the Walter Scott and Emanuel church shootings prompted her involvement in activism, taking part in the Days of Grace rally\u003cbr\u003eas well as helping to organize for Black Lives Matter Charleston."]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture."]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Note"]},"value":{"en":["For more information contact the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, 125 Bull Street, Charleston, SC 29424."]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Statement"]},"value":{"en":["All rights reserved."]}},{"label":{"en":["Interviewee"]},"value":{"en":["Bradley, Imara"]}},{"label":{"en":["Interviewer"]},"value":{"en":["Brown, Millicent E., 1948-"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Topical"]},"value":{"en":["Black lives matter movement","Political activists","Activism","Political participation","Community organization","Social movements"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Personal or Corporate"]},"value":{"en":["Slager, Michael, 1981-","d’Baha, Muhiyidin, 1985-2018","Moye, Muhiyidin, 1985-2018","International Longshoreman's Association"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Geographic"]},"value":{"en":["Charleston (S.C.)","North Charleston (S.C.)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Geographic County"]},"value":{"en":["Charleston County (S.C.)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Contributing Institution"]},"value":{"en":["Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston"]}},{"label":{"en":["Media Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral Histories"]}},{"label":{"en":["Resource Locator"]},"value":{"en":["AMN 1168.001.018"]}},{"label":{"en":["Digitization Specifications"]},"value":{"en":["Mp4 derivative audio and video created using Davinci Resolve. Archival masters are all mp4 files."]}},{"label":{"en":["Date Digital"]},"value":{"en":["2022"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Imara Bradley was born in Greensboro, North Carolina before moving to Summerville and the greater Charleston area, South Carolina. A other of two, she works as an executive director of a non-profit, small business owner, and a crystal and chakra healer. The tragedies of the Walter Scott and Emanuel church shootings prompted her involvement in activism, taking part in the Days of Grace rally\u003cbr\u003eas well as helping to organize for Black Lives Matter Charleston."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture."]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowcountry Digital Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowcountry Digital Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/212/original/LOHI_aviarybanner2.jpg?1741032082","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/298/964/small/open-uri20251217-4125201-s47krc_1766000420.jpg?1766000422","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20251217-4125201-s47krc.mp4"]},"duration":4309.631,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/298/964/small/open-uri20251217-4125201-s47krc_1766000420.jpg?1766000422","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-cofc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/298/964/original/open-uri20251217-4125201-s47krc.mp4?1766000412","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":4309.631,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["DTA Interview - Imara Bradley - Edited Transcript.docx [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWe're going ask you, first of all to just give us your name and spell it for us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=0.0,7.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nOkay. My name is Imara, I-M-A-R-A, formerly known as Latisha Bradley, L-A-T-I-S-H-A B-R-A-D-L-E-Y.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=7.0,22.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOkay. Where were you born?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=22.0,24.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=24.0,28.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nAnd how would you describe what it is that you do now?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=28.0,34.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI call myself, I guess, a jack of all trades. So, I'm an executive director of a nonprofit. I am also a business owner - a small business owner. I am doing cultural retail with my brother as well as a U-Haul space, and I also do crystal and chakra healing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=34.0,56.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nThat's an awful lot for one person.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=56.0,58.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYes, ma'am.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=58.0,59.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nNot to mention you are the mother of...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=59.0,62.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI'm the mother of two kids - two wonderful boys - Noah and RJ. Noah is 10 - well, he's going to be ten on Saturday - and RJ is seven, and he's going to be eight in February. So yeah, I'm a mom to two, formerly married, so I'm now divorced [laughter] and I'm a business owner entrepreneur.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=62.0,90.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOkay. When looking over your bio, it mentioned your mother having been a teacher. You spent your early years in Walterboro, I think it is? In Summerville?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=90.0,106.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYes, ma'am.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=106.0,109.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nYeah. Talk about, if you will, just for a little bit, the fact that so much of your beginnings were in relatively small communities here in South Carolina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=109.0,122.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYeah. My mom got a job in Walterboro, South Carolina as a teacher, a special education teacher. So, she was a specialized teaching thing that I guess she couldn't get a job for in Greensboro, North Carolina. So, when she found the job, because she had me - she was actually pregnant with me when she was student teaching in Hendersonville, North Carolina – so, when she got the job, she moved me and my brother, and at the time she was pregnant with my sister, down to Walterboro, South Carolina. I grew up there always with her, because she's a teacher. So as a teacher's kid, you're going to this school that your mom goes to. I was a minority out of fairly large classrooms, mostly full of white or other children. There was very few Black kids in the classes that I was at, just based upon my test scores and the fact that my mom and my dad were very present when we were younger.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=122.0,187.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo, you know, I would ask questions to my dad, he would send me to encyclopedias, and that always made me a little bit, you know, quicker, I guess you could say, than the other kids in the classroom. So I wasn't very sociable, because my mom said “no” a lot. When we grew up in Walterboro, we went from... I think in elementary school was with her, middle school was the first time that I could not go to school with her. And then high school, I didn't cut loose until my senior year, of course, because that was the time when she had least, but then they still called her all the time saying “misbehaving” and things like that. But growing up in a small town like Walterboro, you realize early on the differences between you and white folks. My dad, he was an avid skater. He couldn't skate at the local skating rink because it was members only.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=187.0,241.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nHe asked them what the membership was and they told him he didn't have it. When I was a little girl, I remembered, one of the first Christmas parades that happened there - they used to have - after Santa, there was men on horses and white sheets. So, the Klan used to march after the horses. And I remember also as a kid, I was always on the chopping block. Who were you hanging out with? The white kids or the Black kids? I never realized how important that was until I realized that a lot of the Black children that went to school with me were in that neighborhood. But everybody else went to the opposite school. They went to Black Street, Hampton Street, all those kinds of schools. I went to Forest Hills, I went to Carlton Elementary, these kinds of things and those were just full of the white children that did not have the money, I guess, to go to Carlton Prep.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=241.0,302.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo that was a private school, but it was very evident early on where you were and where you weren't. I know I didn't get to attend the skating rink the whole time I lived there. When I graduated, my brother, he was very involved with his friends, and he was very well-liked, and he finally got an invitation with one of his other friends to go to the skating rink, ironically. I think it was two, three years after I left for school. So I chose an HBCU just due to diversity. I never got to hang out with the Black folks. And so that's just kind of what it was growing up there. Summerville? To me, it didn't feel very different.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=302.0,346.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nIt just felt like it was just in the middle, in the middle of - way country, was what I felt like Walterboro was, because the biggest thing was Forrest Gump and the fact that they filmed that movie down there. And then the other thing was Charleston. That felt like the big city. Summerville was just the middle, and I didn't feel no ways about Summerville; I just - I don't really particularly care for it, but I live in Ladson now, so I don't have much to say.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=346.0,379.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nBut small towns shaped you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=379.0,382.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nThey did. It made me realize the lack of resources and how important that can be in a person's life. Opportunities, things that you can get, when you... When I started to visit larger cities and see everything that was around other people and the things that we didn't have, the things that we probably should, differences in education - all of these things became evident as I grew older, as I learned more, as I went different places. And it was - a lot of my friends, they had, like, very positive young experiences like in high school and college, and that just wasn't it for me. Because I... Because it's hard when you don't fit. So, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=382.0,442.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nYou mentioned the fact that you chose to go to an HBCU. Was that a point of discussion in your family? Was that a difficult decision to make?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=442.0,453.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYeah. Yeah, it was, it was, because the initial plan was for me to go to Winthrop in Rock Hill, North Carolina, a place...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=453.0,463.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nRock Hill, South Carolina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=463.0,464.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSouth Carolina, excuse me. But it was a place that I fit based upon my previous record, and my mom thought I would do well at. I was due to go, I had a roommate picked out and everything. She was white, I was Black. You know, that was not a point of contention - we were friends - but at the last minute, because you know, Black folks are last minute, Claflin offered me a full ride to go to an HBCU, and it was right beside South Carolina State University. And their homecomings and whatnots and happenings were legendary as well as the academics at Claflin were very, very well known in the area. So I was like, okay, I'll just go to Claflin. I'll just be with my people, I guess you could say. And I ended up turning down Winthrop and went to Claflin because I was like, well, I'll turn down the loans, you know, to take the full ride, but I didn't stay with a full ride at Claflin.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=464.0,530.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nYou described the involvement of your parents and the fact that your mother was an educator. By the time you get to Claflin, is there a big difference between being academically oriented and fitting in with Black kids?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=530.0,555.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYeah, it was a very hard balancing act, and I think that's kind of what my mom already inherently knew: that I was going to have a difficulty doing. She was very worried about me being in an atmosphere that was different from the way I grew up. Because my mom took great care and great pains to have us in certain places. And I'm not saying that that is one of the things, one of the places - she was just very concerned. That's what I guess I could say. Because of...I guess she knew it as a party place as opposed to an educational place. So let me say it like that. So it wasn't because of the people, it was because of the reputation of State being a really big party town, especially around football season and things like that. I think by the time I left for college, I may have had, like, maybe two boyfriends, and then I was going to a place where I didn't know anybody.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=555.0,624.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI think I ended up, when I went that year, there was two other girls - we weren't even friends, but they went to school at that school the same year that I did - and then three girls that we were friends and they went to school the year before. So those are all the people that I knew, on campus full of people. So just...she didn't like that. But I'm not going to say it worked out, because that first year my father was shot. So, we didn't have a lot of time to spend on that because by the time you get into your first year in college, you're either going to be anchored to a place or you have to full-on change everything and move somewhere else.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=624.0,666.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nMy father was shot in mid-year, my birthday, October 13th, 2000. He was robbed at a local furniture store back home - which was Badcock Furniture - after hours, he was shot in his mouth and his chest. They didn't think that he was going to make it, but he did. He survived it. But that kind of changed the tone and the tenor of our relationship and my need to stay close, as opposed to go further away. Because it's easier to drive back 45 minutes away than it is to do two and three hours from somewhere else. So, we didn't have a lot of time to kind of spend on the difference, kind of thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=666.0,707.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nDid the tragedy with your father being a victim of a violent crime, do you see that as a jumping point for you, in terms of your involvement in the community?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=707.0,725.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYeah, I mean, it was... One thing, he survived, but he survived changed, in the way that the job that he was very faithful to, they did not support him. They didn't give any kind of monetary financial assistance. We had to... The local lawyer who was supposed to be advocating for us did not, holistically, and there was a period of struggle. So, it did change our family, it changed me in a way to find out. Because I always figured we were good people - good people deserve good things - and coincidentally, three or four months after, it was January, an ex-boyfriend of mine, my ex, he's still in prison for 21 years; he was accused, and went to prison for, killing a cab driver in Walterboro.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=725.0,786.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWe were seeing each other, and over Christmas, I left to go back to school and he was, you know, arrested for murder. [Laughter] And they took him away with no evidence, and he's served a sentence, a life sentence, and this is his 21st year of that sentence. So, all of these things changed my thoughts about the way I saw people, the criminal justice system, how I trust folks... The first year in college, I was also a victim of sexual assault. So again, trust, anxiety with large crowds, all of these things kind of shaped my thoughts and feelings about what I wanted to do in this community - or world - because everything changed, and then it didn't just change in little pieces. It changed very quickly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=786.0,841.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nYou then come to Charleston and you talk about being introduced to - not only the tragedy at Emanuel and the Walter Scott killing, but – just, then, being introduced to another set of people. Can you just kind of run that by us a little bit about the impact of some of the people that you interacted with?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=841.0,872.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYeah. The Emanuel Nine, I call them “Eleven” because they were survivors as well as the victims. But that impacted me a lot because in Walterboro, we're in a division of AME. So, I went to church very lightly when I was a kid, I would always be the kid that - I'm the extra kid, the kid you put in the car with your other kids. [Laughter] So we would do youth retreats and all this kind of stuff in the AME church. So - and in fact, I knew some of those folks or knew of some of those folks, attended church with some of those people. My first husband, my ex-husband, he was actually a minister of music at one of the churches. So, we went to conference with some of these people, so when it happened, it could have been any of us. My dad was a trustee and a deacon; after he healed himself and after the Lord saw fit to move him forward, I started going to AME church.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=872.0,941.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nHe started attending the church. He became a deacon and a trustee and a choir member in that church and continued to sing. So all of those things - that trust factor, like, what if my dad was there that night? What if my brother or family member or people that I was even close- it could have been anything. And it just felt like a shot through the heart when I saw that, as well as the Walter Scott. I was at a crossroads with my job in Orangeburg. So at that point I was like, “I really kind of want to go home and be closer to home.” I had two small kids, so I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old at the time. So I have two toddlers, I’m leaving my second husband, I was like, “I've got to be close to my mom in this time and I've just got to,” when you have little Black boys, “I've got to change the way that this is going to look for them because it doesn't look like it's going to be anything.”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=941.0,998.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo that's what kind of drew me back to Charleston solidly. I wanted to get control of my career, my life, my kids, and provide for them a different way than what I was seeing from just everything, media. The options were limited, and especially in South Carolina, it just...it was a lot, and I was like, “I've got to do something about it.” Initially when I got here, I didn't even make contact with folks. I watched a lot of things from the television and...took note of when the rallies were. But initially, also, you have to find a job. Everything's more expensive, housing's more expensive. The job that I was promised didn't pan out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=998.0,1048.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo eventually when I did come down here and did want to do activism, I didn't get an opportunity until the Days of Grace, in September of, like, 2015, and everything - all this stuff - had been on the media all summer and all of that kind of stuff. But that was my first opportunity to go on my and go my own way and meet different people and try to do different things and try to make a change, I guess you could say. I think that's what catalyzes a lot of people to do things, to go places - such as an activist network kind of thing - is that you're trying to make a change, but you don't really know how. So you try to find like-minded people to do so, and that was my push for that. It was a lot.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1048.0,1100.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nSo tell us a little bit about who it is you connected with and how you found this circle of support.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1100.0,1110.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWhen I got to the Days of Grace, I'll never forget it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1110.0,1113.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nDo you want to just explain what Days of Grace is?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1113.0,1116.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nDays of Grace is a rally. It was supposed to be after that big bridge hand-holding, they were going to have a rally, to put everybody together with the workers' organizations, with the human rights organizations, and we're going to come up with a plan for Charleston to move us forward, progressively with workers' rights, human rights, the medical center's rights - with the nurse workers - because they already previously been striking for years in downtown Charleston. So, all of this was supposed to happen over - I think it started at Wragg Square - and then we marched [laughter]. We would march down all the way to - back to Marion Square, through the city, and we would have days of rallies. So, they invited a lot of people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1116.0,1173.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nThere was the Black Panthers, there was the Black soldiers, there was the different workers organizations like the AA, I think it was the IAW and all of those folks, the International Longshoremen's from Charleston were there. The MUSC nurses were there. Like, a lot of people, from across the country as well as here. My first inkling: I see a big crowd of people. I'm walking through it, I'm seeing the signs, I'm loving it, I'm taking pictures, and I look and I see the Black soldiers in their fatigues. I thought it was a uniform at the time. They were former servicemen. It wasn't their uniform, but you have to live it to learn it. So I was like, okay, cool, cool, cool. So, when we started marching out, I followed what I now know is Muhiyidin. So he was running through the crowd, just going and talking to people, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1173.0,1235.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYou would've thought he knew everybody, and honestly, he might've known none. But we started marching and then we come through...in front of the Emanuel Church, and then he starts - because he'd already been drumming, we're chanting, we're walking - and he says, \"Clementa Pinckney was assassinated.\" And then there was another moment where Shango - he was with the Black soldiers - and there was another young lady, India, Sister Afia from Columbia - they all stopped and they poured water for the ancestors and all this kind of stuff. After that, I followed them and then I tried to join what they were joining. I was like, well, “I don't think I could wear the fatigues and whatnot.” However, I did know that Muhiyidin was a part of Black Lives Matter because when we got back in front of the Marion Square and there was a banner that needed to be held, and he was like, “Can somebody hold open the banner?”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1235.0,1299.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI was like, “Okay,” looking like, “Why you ain't got people?” But okay, I went over there and I held it, and some of the side pictures, you could see me a little, and I'm holding the banner, and then they on the stage just humming and hawing... So that was my first activism bug experience, and I didn't let go of it since then. And through that, after then meeting people was slow coming, because I didn't know that Black Lives Matter at that point was no longer - they were like the, I guess you could say the Temptations or something, they broke up by that point, and there was a whole slew cast of new members - so I was one of the cast of new members. So, it's disputed. Who's the real Temptations? I don't know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1299.0,1347.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWell, let's talk a little bit about that. I mean, for you trying to come newly into this political environment, was that confusing at all that there were these different segments?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1347.0,1363.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nVery much so, very much so. Because when I started to try to help, I would find from some people, they didn't want my kind of help for two reasons. At that time, I had just come out - so I'm bisexual. I had a girlfriend, so I would show up to a lot of events with her - and she is masculine presenting, whereas I'm very feminine. So that was an issue with some rooms. The fact that I was a Black woman was an issue with some rooms. The fact that the older members had - I guess they were beyond that and didn't come back to actually explain what was happening – and, you know, Muhiyidin is...his ideas are so grand and just so fully formed to him, but it was...he's like water. You can't catch him long enough to actually get him down on paper. And I am A-Type personality; I like to see things written down.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1363.0,1421.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI've got to make it make sense. And another thing is - and I still stick to this particular value now - if you ever see an activist who's just an activist and has no job, no place to go, except activism all day long, that might not really be an activist. Because you have to have a place to live. Because know when I started activism, we were housing-insecure. We lived in hotels. I had to send my kids to stay with other people; my parents would take them sometimes. I had to make it make sense, so I had to change jobs. So a lot of rallies I couldn't attend because I had to work. I found a part-time job at, like, a Barnes \u0026 Noble for $9 an hour, but in Charleston, that's not enough to have an apartment or a life or a car. But I've always been very ingen- you know, very creative, with my thinking and how I'm going to make money.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1421.0,1483.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo, I would have many jobs as opposed to one. I would have three, and that's what I did to afford the car insurance, to afford the different things, taking money out of my, because I left a state job, was at South Carolina State as an extension agent. I left that and I had some money saved up in the retirement system, taking that out, you know what I'm saying? To survive. [Clapping.] I don't see how people can be activists 24/7 with no jobs. So I didn't say that to say my need was always to put it on paper, make it make sense. Let's get it granted. Let's get it, jobs for - let's get people paid to do this stuff or something.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1483.0,1531.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nBecause otherwise, that's just leaving the actors out there. We don't know who they're acting for, and that changes the narrative of the conversation as well as the activism. You know what I'm saying? That changes a lot of things when you consistently have people who aren't tied to anything, they're just hollering and screaming about something and everybody's paying attention to them. But how they paying their bills? Who's paying them, though? I don't know. That's random. I don't know. Does that make sense?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1531.0,1562.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOh, it makes a lot of sense. And it makes sense to you, as to how you define your role.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1562.0,1569.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYes, yes. So I've been an organizer ever since. I try to make it make sense, not only just for myself, but for the maximum amount of people possible. So, when I was doing Black Lives Matter, I would try to help with organizing the rallies. We organized a couple, there's a couple that I still laugh about today, and we stopped traffic off of - that was Rivers Avenue, in front of Barnes \u0026 Noble in the Mall. Don't try that again because they will send people looking for you. [Laughter] But that whole experience, the Midnight Madness, up until Michael Slager was convicted, all of these experience kind of shaped my perspective on activism - the things that it takes, the time it requires, and just - in particular – just...the discipline, the security that's required to actually get done things safely.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1569.0,1645.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd I also know that after a while, a lot of those main security and/or discipline people that we had back then weren't going to be here, especially in 2020 when the George Floyd protests and things like that happened. That's how I kind of felt it in my soul. I was like, these kids are going to get arrested because by then I've, in fear for my life, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to do Black Lives Matter. We used to receive a lot of threats through the Facebook page. We used to receive a lot of threats on the groups and things like that. So I kind of, my own safety and my kids and after Muhiyidin was murdered, and after Mary took her life and after all of these things, and I had four family members, the same year that Muhiyidin was murdered, pass away.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1645.0,1699.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo I was not in a good mental space, and I mean, I was just keenly, acutely aware of the security that was lacking because there was another act, Shango Osoosi - he always gets me for saying that wrong - but he calls himself Shango Mutuwaf right now, but he's incarcerated at Perry Correctional Facility. He was arrested two months - three months? - it was three months before Muhiyidin was murdered, because Muhiyidin was murdered in February. He went to jail, initially, December of the year before, and that year was 2017, because Muhiyidin was murdered in 2018. Right. He went to talk to the sheriff in his town about misconduct, the sheriff's misconduct, and how to make it better in their town, right? Because he'd had words after that sheriff, after a community meeting, and the sheriff invited him, said, come on out, let's talk about it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1699.0,1773.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd they did, at the public safety office, and that man never left that room. He would try to walk out and the SLED officer put his hand in the door, and because the hand in the door tactic is used by the police so much, and that hand got, you know, crushed in that door. He got two charges, public threat of official - which was the sheriff - and then the resisting arrest and the injury of an officer, which is, that's that one charge, for the officer that resulted in - he was denied bond twice the first year...and then ended up with a sentence of 10 years for the hand and four years for the threat of an officer. But before they put him in there, whatnot, of course the questions, there's always law enforcement questions, you know what I'm saying? I'm sure he went through that, and I just know, hindsight being 20/20, all of these things all at once within a six-month span can't be coincidence.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1773.0,1842.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo, I just tried to bide my time quietly and out the way up until the George Floyd protest took off, and then you had the Black Liberation Fund. We swooped in and bailed out a lot of people. It wasn't until I did my sixth or seventh bail at - I think we were almost at a million - that I realized how... No, I realized early on how dangerous it was. I got death threats almost immediately, so I couldn't go to the second protest that we tried to organize. A Daniel Island’s mom group shared my picture in the group. So, some friends of mine was like, “You might not need to go to that protest that you're organizing in North Charleston, because they already put your stuff out there.” So, I mean, initially, the first couple of nights when we started bailing people out - I never looked forward to it getting to that point, but it did.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1842.0,1900.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI think you may have answered... The way I was going to phrase the question was how you transitioned from a general Black Lives Matter movement to something as specific as the Black Liberation Fund. And I think you've done a beautiful job of explaining what your thinking was, but can you talk a little bit about what it took to create that fund? And who are the people that came along with your way of thinking; what was that process like?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1900.0,1939.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nOkay. Honestly, holistically, after Muhiyidin was murdered and Black Lives Matter National never showed up when I kept asking for training and assistance and just help mourning and processing – you know, we never got an Alicia. We never got a Patrice. We never got anything. So, I’d all but - at that time - washed my hands of the organization as a whole, because I was just involved - because to me, it was the LGBTQ way to continue activism without having to suffer any of the gender violence that can be involved with some other conscious ways. You know what I'm saying? Because homophobia is real, you know what I'm saying? With a lot of people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1939.0,1989.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nIt was ingrained in the movement itself.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1989.0,1992.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYes, ingrained in the movement itself. It's been a very real reality that some tables that I would sit at, some people didn't want to even sit at the table. You know what I'm saying? They wanted their ideas to be heard, but they don't want you in the room. But that being said, I knew that if I were to do activism this time, I couldn't name it that. Because I don't even want to be associated with it, because it's a hurtful thing to know something that you've believed in so wholeheartedly does not believe in you back.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=1992.0,2027.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo Black Liberation Fund, we played around with the idea - once we realized what we were doing, and the realization didn't really come that day of the protests - I started sharing the protests on the page, because I would normally share things that are going on in Charleston. There was a protest listed in Columbia that I actually attended that morning, and then that afternoon, the Charleston folks had already commented under there and said that they're going to meet in Charleston and they're going to have a protest and all this kind of stuff, and everything started happening - it just went really quickly - and I knew at that quick rate of speed they did not do security, then nobody has a permit and everybody possibly might get arrested after that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2027.0,2074.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI understood what was happening. We got back from Columbia, and it was, like, late in the day and they were almost out of the marching kind of thing, but that's when the whole situation on May 30th devolved. When it started, the later it got, the more it started devolving. And at that point, I started watching the news. A young lady who I met through the Black Lives Matter page, she went with us to Columbia. We all got back here, and she called me. So - Cindy Kessler - she called me and was like, \"Do you see what's happening on TV?\" I say, \"Yes\" because she's an organizer from somewhere else.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2074.0,2112.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI'm sorry, what was that name again?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2112.0,2113.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nCindy Kessler. She is from Tennessee, Memphis. So, she was like, \"Do you see what's going on?\" I was like, \"Yeah.\" And then everybody - then that's when the calls started coming. Everybody was like, \"Do you see what's going on?\" \"Yeah, yeah, yeah.\" But because we'd had it on the page, people were asking, “How can we support people? How can we do this? What can we do? What can we do?” I started giving out cash tags for bail funds because I was like, “They going to jail.” [Laughter] That is not funny. But I was like, “They going to jail, boy, they are going to jail. Who is going to do this?” It’s that “Tag, you’re it!” moment. And I was like, “I guess I'm it. We’re going to raise bail funds.” Everybody agreed with that, because I asked her that question earlier in a gas station. Because we seen protests, other protests and how they devolve and, like, those are the things that's needed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2113.0,2173.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd I was like, \"Do you know how to raise bail funds?\" I think is, what I, \"Do you think people are going to need bail funds?\" is what I asked her. And she said, \"Yeah\", so using the page, the former Black Lives Matter page, we just started raising bail funds. We got calls coming in, because we put a phone number on there, about who's been arrested and where to be and where they go, are, and stuff like that. The rest of it was just learning on your feet. We went to Al Cannon Detention Center, and we just literally were taking the money from the CashApp and the PayPal or however they were sending it, and we were starting to pay bail using personal cards and figuring it out, figuring it out. Because in Charleston, South Carolina, there is not a way for a person to pay bails, a bondsman maybe.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2173.0,2221.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd I think that's what they really, kind of, thought - that everybody was going to use the bond industry and make a lot of money - but they didn't. So, we ended up doing that the first night and then - actually, I think we did two nights in a row -  and then we had a protest again three days later. And then we did that another night, and it became a situation where I was like, “We got to make this make sense, because ain't nobody going to be sending nobody this much money, and can't nobody be liable for it.” So, I...after the second or third major bailout, I had an anxiety attack and I was bedridden.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2221.0,2272.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI'm sorry, I didn't hear you. IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI had an anxiety attack, and I was bedridden.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2272.0,2273.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI had an anxiety attack, and I was bedridden.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2273.0,2273.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI had an anxiety attack, and I was bedridden. MILLICENT BROWN\n\nBedridden.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2273.0,2278.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo I was just in the bed and people were asking - because I'd done started a thing, we came up with the name Black Liberation Fund, we came up with a logo that kind of looked like Assata, Assata Shakur, Assata Shakur. Akua Page made the initial landing page and the graphics, and then Ari was over there - call her Markamu - she was over there providing just support. There was so many people that came out of the woodworks initially to help, you know, pull all of that together. And because I kept wanting to go, but my body didn't let me. And the large bails - because the first large bail was Abraham Jenkins’s - and it was six digits, and a funder sent us six digits for a person. It makes you feel a type of way when you're paying that type of money for people. It made me feel sad, it made me feel angry - same time, blessed that somebody was able to fund it - but people. It's people. And we're not in slavery, but we are still in slavery, because... That's what made it so intimately apparent.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2278.0,2373.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd see, the ironic thing, when Shango first was initially arrested, he could have been sentenced with two things. Because I went back through all the paperwork. I started learning legal on my feet for the first year. I just learned all kinds of stuff. There's a way that a judge can sentence you, two ways. He could sentence to years or he could sentence you monetarily. So that 10 years in prison could have been $10,000, that four years in prison could have been $4,000. So, at $14,000, that judge could have sentenced him, and he would've had his freedom. So, if anybody ever again say, “What's the difference between a white person going to jail and a Black person going to jail?” Oh, honey. It’s access, access to the people, to how much it costs to get out, all of that stuff. So that's where I went with Black Liberation Fund.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2373.0,2428.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nInternally, initially, we were fiscally sponsored to take in that much money, but my intention was always to keep the money in Charleston. So, we would have to be 501C3, you know what I'm saying? A nonprofit. And another thing, because - another thing, when you send a little Black girl so much money and don't tell her what to do with it? You could end up being - I could have been financially responsible for a million dollars, because it came in through my bank. No, honey! [Laughter] I signed up for 501C3; I started the process, I don't know, by that August.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2428.0,2476.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nDid you have any advisors that were helping you in the community?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2476.0,2479.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI tried to ask people, I tried to ask folks. [Laughter] I would have these conversations and conversations with people, and they would be like, \"Well, you should just apply for status online.\" But how? You know what I’m saying? What does this look like? You know what I'm saying? For a little while, I had some older folks kind of mentoring me, but I guess the width and the breadth and the consistency of the publicity, good and bad, for bailing out protesters, wasn't getting us any favors. I asked a couple of local nonprofits to fiscally sponsor us, and everybody said no. So we ended up having to get Black Millennials for Flint based in – ironically, not in Flint, Michigan - but in Washington D.C., to fiscally sponsor us for a time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2479.0,2535.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd then by that time, I'd already started applying for status. And because if you don't know, as a little Black girl, how nonprofits work, you would've never known that if you get grants and all these kinds of things? After that money comes back, that goes to your fiscal sponsor. That doesn't go to your organization back home. So again, my need to make it a non-profit organization. And that's what I did. I lost a lot of friends. I lost a lot of everything. I lost a lot of time, a lot of sleep. Had a lot of tears. But we are 501C3 as of February 2021, and I am just working on the structure, the outlet, where the money is, where it's not, and also the community idea that all law is the same law? It’s not. It's just not. You can't bail everybody out of jail.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2535.0,2603.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI was going to ask you to talk a little bit about that. Like, how does a Black Liberation Fund make a distinction between a legitimate protester needing bail money and somebody who was kind of hanging out that night? Or do you make those kinds of distinctions?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2603.0,2625.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nInitially, we didn't. Initially, it’s been - this has been a learning experience and a comedy of errors. And I say that because there are some - even activists - who will go out in the street with their intention on getting arrested. In the state of South Carolina, I would think that that is a mismanagement of resources. Because what it's doing is funding a system that we're trying to abolish and/or take it away. So it is counterproductive. The same time that you use to bail a person out of jail - because it can be hours - and the same money that you used to bail a person out of jail, the same lawyer fee - because at first, lawyers were being really sweet, they were really nice. They were offering their services for free. Free went from $11-20,000, $3000 per person. Free went very expensive, very quickly. There are no civil rights or human rights attorneys in the state of South Carolina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2625.0,2691.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo, if you're trying to say, \"Oh, the cop disturbed my human rights?\" No, you're going to have to...either they maimed you or killed you, in this state, in order to win a case against the police. I mean, that's just what I've been saying, because I can't find nobody to take legitimate cases like that this whole year. You know what I'm saying? It sounds good to say on camera, it sounds good to say on social media, but ain't nobody in here doing it. Ain't nobody doing it. And then criminal attorneys cost so much. And then when you make a non-profit, you have to have the project you're doing and what you're requesting and all these kinds of things and then rewrite it out for the next year if you're doing something different. So, if I'm saying that I'm doing criminal, and I'm doing incarceration and whatever, I can't pivot and go and do family. [Laughter]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2691.0,2748.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI can't take that money that's supposed to be for bail funds and for expungement or pardon or incarceration relief and do it for something else. You know what I'm saying? Because you've got to be...yeah. There's a nonprofit leader I saw in Cincinnati, went to jail for tax fraud and defrauding and defaming his employees of money. I will not. I get people out of jail; I ain't going to jail for nobody. [Laughter] I'm just saying, it's just...that's how I feel about it. But it's a learning experience and people love to say, “Well, you don't need to go to law school.” I have to beg to differ because I'm going to need to be a lawyer to get some of these other things done that everybody here refuses to do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2748.0,2797.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nIs that something you are seriously contemplating?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2797.0,2801.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nIf I could get it funded? Oh, heck yeah. [Laughter] I would, if I could get it funded, and that's been my thing for the last six to eight months. It's not just saying that we're going to do something so people don't see us going out and having all kinds of events and all these things. Right now, it needs planning because lawyer fees for an expungement or pardon can run you $500 to $2,000 per, and expungement itself just the application is $285. A pardon is a hundred dollars, but their board is non-objective, and they could deny you as many times as they please. I heard one story of one guy, he changed his life around, started a halfway house, all kinds of great things. They denied him four times. Four times!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2801.0,2857.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nTell us for the record what this need, about expungement and pardon, really means to you. I mean, why has that become the top of the list for you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2857.0,2873.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI found that when you go to jail... So, this is the process for a bail. So, when you go to jail, they're supposed to do what's called a risk assessment. That's supposed to determine how bad you are to the community around you, and if you are even worth putting an amount on, a bail on. And from there, they decide an amount, and then they decide the rest of it – you know, based upon the case facts as well as your previous history. So now, if you have a history, but you're accused of something and you go to jail, even if you didn't do that thing, you can still get a five and six digit bail just based upon your previous history because they count it. It's, like scored, and they try to say that it's objective and fair. I've met with those folks that now do that. They said it's objective and fair, but I don't think anything...the police can't police themselves.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2873.0,2934.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nSo of course a police is going to decide that that measure that they're using is fair because they're police. You know what I'm saying? So, without outside, kind of, whatever, it gets to be a convoluted system. So, expungements and pardons came through us initially - but National Expungement Week, that was an organization that came and was like, “Well, let's have a event where we invite people and we pay for all of their expungements and pardons. We just pay for everything. We pay for their legal fees, we pay for everything.” I was like, “This sounds too good to be true,” right? I did say that in the beginning, but I still did it. [Laughter] We still did it. We took on the ownership. We had our first event - I want to say it was November, December - and our second is in February. The first one was well-attended. MILLICENT BROWN\n\nGive me the years, now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2934.0,2989.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nGive me the years, now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2989.0,2989.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nGive me the years, now. IMARA BRADLEY\n\nThat is ‘20 - because I started Black Liberation Fund in 2020, so that was November, December 2020. So that year, that same year, we had a hundred-and-some-odd, 117 people, I think it was, show up to the first events with, I want to say about 80% of those being women. MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOf color?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=2989.0,3015.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOf color?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3015.0,3015.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nOf color? IMARA BRADLEY\n\nOf color, of color. Well, there was other colors there too, but the majority were women of color, that came to try to get their expungements and pardons. Same thing that February - it was a little less media, but we still had probably about 60, 70 people; same kind of numbers. And what I noticed most about it is that it answered the question of why South Carolina has 11 male prisons - well, out of 11 prisons, why are there only two female prisons? Because they don't send them back to jail. They send them home to go deal with their kids, or they put them on parole and pardon and make them pay, and pay, and pay, and then they can't get any kind of jobs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3015.0,3070.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd also, housing had a thing where if you have a record, you can't be on housing. So it gets to be a cycle where they cycle through and they can possibly cycle through the same prison multiple times. Whereas a man, they will just keep them for longer stints of time. So you're not even looking at an expungement or pardon? Well, of course not for prison, expungement, because that's misdemeanors, but a pardon. You know what I'm saying? Because the pardon board and the parole board are one and the same, and they are not objective at all. They just kind of look at folks and decide if I feel good, and I like you today, if they're going to give you either a parole or a pardon. And then you go through the parole office and they can charge you fees, and they charge you monthly fees, and they do all of this.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3070.0,3129.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nAnd a lot of the women that were coming were coming because of parole, or because of the other “smaller” charges, which end up being monetary fines, that they hadn’t set up payment plans to pay off and they want them off. But that became a very good - to me – precursor, of how we can stem doing bails. Because with bails - I think my heart broke – Thanksgiving, I did a bail for a man and it was a community member, because at that point we were also doing community member bails. He had no home to go to. He had no Thanksgiving dinner. We gave him a coat. We gave him a bag. He chose where he wanted to be dropped off at. And I mean, we kept up with him for months and months after that. But until his dad took him back, his situation didn't get any better. And that was my thing about doing bails when there are no - there's still, what, the two homeless shelters, one homeless shelter in Charleston?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3129.0,3203.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nThere's, I want to say, limited - [laughter] limited food resources, but that's not true, because if you homeless, you can't take spaghetti sauce and make spaghetti. You can't open a can. You can't keep food that needs to be refrigerated. So I was like, “That? We need to think more about that, and how are we going to do that.” Because your ability to have a home should not be a precursor, obviously, of a bail. And then another thing is that Charleston County, they do five- and six-digit bails, consistently. It can quickly balloon in cost. And after people stop feeling the spirit of activism, they give less for bails for regular people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3203.0,3254.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nYou are obviously so passionate about this piece of the puzzle that you have dedicated yourself and your energies to. Do you feel alone in this?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3254.0,3271.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI do. I do. I do. Because...for two reasons. When you tell a family that you can't do a certain thing...my heart breaks because their heart’s broken. And, you know, it's okay when it's people that you kind of don't know. But when it's actually also people you know, it really hurts. And then, because I'm spending so much time learning all of this stuff, like, I'm really time-strapped. And I've lost just regular friends, just because I can't do a lot of things because I'm always doing something that has a purpose. You know what I'm saying? There's some times I go out and carouse, but those times are few and far between. [Laughter] So, I do feel really alone.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3271.0,3330.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWell, let me ask this. Where do you see some kind of light? I don't mean “answer”, for sure, but how do you see the next level of support? Or to whom do you think you will be turning to expand the work you're trying to do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3330.0,3354.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWell, my assistance on being at that building with my brother Uni, and I call him my brother because we are brother from another mother. That's a brother from another-","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3354.0,3363.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWell, tell us his name for the record.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3363.0,3365.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nJeffrey Nicholson. So, Jeffrey Universal “Uni” Nicholson. So I will refer to Uni as him. I met him back in activism probably about 2015, no, 2016, no, 2015, actually. We started going to Central Station on Remount Road. It was a building with a bunch of Black businesses in it, and he was one of the businesses. And then eventually, I think around about 2016, Muhiyidin started renting space inside of his building, which ended up being the Black Lives Matter office, or it was called the International African People's Association. [Laughter] So we was trying to do this, right, and I would be like, “Moye, we got to pay rent. We got to pay Uni rent. How are we going to pay rent?\" So, at one time I strong-armed him to think about that, and we ended up buying some shirts and some jewelry in the sale, while he has his table back there with his shoes off, “Seen, my sister. Seen!” IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYou know what I'm saying? He's back. So, I was like, “Well, we got to make it make financial sense.” Because the rent was $600 a month. At that time, I can't even pay rent for my house. I certainly ain't going to be living here. Well, hindsight being 20/20, I probably could have lived there, but I wouldn't have wanted to. Especially not with-","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3365.0,3439.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYou know what I'm saying? He's back. So, I was like, “Well, we got to make it make financial sense.” Because the rent was $600 a month. At that time, I can't even pay rent for my house. I certainly ain't going to be living here. Well, hindsight being 20/20, I probably could have lived there, but I wouldn't have wanted to. Especially not with-","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3439.0,3439.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nYou know what I'm saying? He's back. So, I was like, “Well, we got to make it make financial sense.” Because the rent was $600 a month. At that time, I can't even pay rent for my house. I certainly ain't going to be living here. Well, hindsight being 20/20, I probably could have lived there, but I wouldn't have wanted to. Especially not with- MILLICENT BROWN\n\n...with two children.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3439.0,3461.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\n[Laughter] Yeah, Noah and RJ. But that's how I met Uni - because he was a local business owner, and he did the huge David Banner event. And this is  - still, they’re tell-tales of this - I think in 2015, 2016 - he brought David Banner down here twice, but one of the biggest ones was over at the ILA Hall - and they had wall-to-wall attendance of Black people in one place, proudest moment of my life to see all the Black people in one place, to listen to something that's other than him actually doing a concert.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3461.0,3499.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI was like, “Wow, okay, dude. Yeah.” But at that time, I volunteered Uni to go park at the high school and direct people back over to the ILA, because they had a quick change when the high school refused the space, so we had to tell people to go over to that place. So we met briefly back then, and every time I would have something going on in activism, you know what I'm saying, after Moye died and after all these things, I would always go back over there because he's a very grounded kind person and believing in Black ecosystems and what we would do and moving forward. And he has his nonprofit called Communiversity. So, when I really feel alone, I really don't feel alone because it's about building our pieces to build an ecosystem. And Communiversity, Black Liberation Fund and all these different types of things -","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3499.0,3558.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\n...we know that Black folks, we suffer from a lack of economics, power, all of these kinds of things. Now, if we organize ourselves strategically, if we create the things that we don't have in-house, because he - quite frankly, without a lot of knowledge - he's been kept a business building complex of six different Black businesses open on that road for years, without any consistent, like, people, consistently. There would be somebody here and somebody there and this-that, but consistently hustling because he is a hustler. And I get it, I get it. But it's that kind of talent and ingenuity that we're going to have to have. You know? Some of his favorite elders can tell him - and he's had conversations with A. Peter Bailey, who was on the OAAU staff with Malcolm X - I mean, come on. We just need to plan, people. Right? So when I don't get as lonely as I could be, because that's where we're kind of thinking going forward, if we can just get that thing where people can put aside their differences and we could just kind of work together, that'd be dope.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3558.0,3649.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SPEAKER 3\n\nLet me call you back. Let me pause here real quick. Okay, so, we are now at one hour. Would anyone like something to drink? Or just take a quick pause?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3649.0,3661.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nShould I stop talking? I can stop.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3661.0,3662.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWe'll probably wrap up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3662.0,3663.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SPEAKER 3\n\n[Laughter] No, we don't want to stop you. MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI was about say, I could stay here all night. But we'll probably wrap it up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3663.0,3665.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI was about say, I could stay here all night. But we'll probably wrap it up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3665.0,3665.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI was about say, I could stay here all night. But we'll probably wrap it up. SPEAKER 3\n\nOkay. Alright.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3665.0,3669.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nIf you give me just two or three more minutes. Yeah, no, you've been the most delightful person. Obviously, I don't have to ask a lot of questions.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3669.0,3679.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWell, I mean, we could keep - if you have time. I have time. So that's completely up to you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3679.0,3687.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nI would like to spend, if you don't mind, in wrapping up - and we will wrap up with this - I'd like to maybe ask you... I already asked you where you saw your future support. I guess my question is going to be, are you optimistic about the ability to transform the Charleston community? Not the country and the world necessarily, but how are you and Uni and... What do you think about chances for this kind of systemic reordering that you are working so hard for?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3687.0,3734.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nChances I couldn't say, but every time that I feel like it's not worth it or is insurmountable, I guess at certain points, something very divine happens. I’ve, over the last year - I need to recount, but I've probably raised $200,000 in grant funds, every time that I thought that this just doesn't matter. And that's not for personal use, of course, it's for the organization itself. Somebody believes in what we're doing and our ideas to move us to the next step. So we can, you know, pay folks in-house. So we can get people the resources they need, the expungements and pardons there... And I don't have to spend all night with a lawyer saying, “How much does it cost? Can you just help us?”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3734.0,3791.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nBut I really believe, like, if it happens enough, that they'll have to; they won't have a choice. They won't have a choice. And I guess if you're dogged enough with a thing, it becomes an actual thing. So, you know, I've found out the way that they actually do these laws, and that the Senate – you know, the Penology Committee, you know what I'm saying? That's where the real laws about these things happen. You know what I'm saying. So once you start to realize where these things actually come from or where that people power can lie, I... They're going to have to. Because if you change their issues, they have to go with your issue, because you're electing them. You know what I'm saying? And this is another opportunity for - we've got to have candidates. We've got to have just as many smart people doing this type of work as that type of work. There's no reason why we shouldn't.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3791.0,3860.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI don't say that I give up on Charleston itself, but in the Tri-County area, my focus has become more so like North Charleston, Summerville and Goose Creek, just because, like, they've... I think the movement here has been completed, unfortunately. I'm not saying it's like a holistic lost cause, but if we were to get a city to grant funds into a place, I would want it to have a place that has a population that can be served and it doesn't go to serving their pockets. So that's why I've been, like, Remount? I try to have everything on Remount Road. I know that's not reasonable. I can't have everything on Remount Road, but I mean, everything is everywhere else. Like, everybody has everything, everywhere else. And if have no transportation from point A to point B, you can't even get there. And another thing, like...it's a food desert. You know what I'm saying?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3860.0,3927.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nOther than the stuff that they kind of...you know? It's a holistic, like you can't have a salad. There's no salads there. Because I like salad, I notice things like that. [Laughter] But to have a place that has no salad, that has no library, has no...no anything, and we have still this much opportunity to take it back before it gets taken over by Keith Summey and Park Circle. There was at one point a really big thing Moye had, he couldn't stand on Keith Summey, Keith Summey couldn't stand him. But I haven't heard any dog bark in his yard since, unfortunately, he transitioned. And that is just, it is ludicrous to me. There's no other word for it. You know what I'm saying? So, you know Tecklenburg catches all the heat, but what about Summey? You know what I'm saying? Because ain't nothing over there got better. If anything, it's gotten worse. He named a library after himself just to tear it down - who does that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=3927.0,4001.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nBecause you know that your interview - and those of others of this era - is going to be put aside to be heard years from now. What is your statement to the future? What do you want to say as we close out this interview? That-","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4001.0,4027.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI just hope that what I'm doing is enough to have laid a foundation of groundwork that - because the large bails, there was $1.1 million in bails, in those initial bails - so when that comes back, that comes back to this community and that it keeps continued to get recycled through those kinds of avenues until the point where it's not even necessary for us to have to do bails and expungements and pardons because they have given us the social capital, such as housing and things, that eliminate the need for these things. You know what I'm saying? Because that's – that's what you'll find. You'll find that a lot of times violence happens when you run out of options. A lot of times you run out of options because early on you make dumb mistakes and then you continue to have a record. I'm not saying that's everybody's story; however, I hope that we do enough, not just me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4027.0,4093.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nI hope that Uni does enough, like, as a businessman, to have a strategic place, a cultural center for them to go to, and that we can always remember who we are despite everything around us because that's one thing that we lack as a people, as Black people, you know what I'm saying? Asians, they have their culture, Latinos have a culture. Everybody else has their culture except for us. You know what I'm saying? We don't have a coherent language between all of us - except for, you know, like Geechee and all these kinds of different things. But you know what I'm saying? When it comes to speaking Spanish and they speak to each other in Spanish and nobody don't know what they're saying? [Laughter] We are lacking the things that connect all of us together, that connect us despite any differences, besides any gender and any LGBTQ issues, all these kinds of things. There are things that connect certain people, certain families together - they will live in houses together, and then build their economic power.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4093.0,4162.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWe are pushing ours out of the nest and expecting them to expand sometimes. And I just hope that we can change the way we do it into a more communal place. Into a place we actually know our neighbors like we used to. Because before the civil rights movement - and I'll keep my opinions about that to myself - but before we integrated, we had a firm hold on community, who does and who does not, and whose house you could stay over, and all of these things. Now we don't want to know anybody around us. Now we just don't want to know. And it's just how can you have a community like that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4162.0,4205.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWe drank the poison. I want, for the record, to make sure that you on tape talk about the number of people that have been impacted through the Black Liberation Fund. Now, the numbers you gave us were only up through last year, but can you just make sure we can document. How many people do you feel you have reached out, with your bail and pardon initiatives?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4205.0,4241.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nWe have...my last count was 212 people. That includes people who've come to our events, people that we've bailed out and - just between the two, actually, there's not a whole lot more - but between the bails and people that have come to those events and people we've called or going to try to put through the process, it's 212 people at my last count. Now, we are still moving forward with expungements and pardons and stuff like that, so there are some numbers that still need to be counted, you know, but that's how. It’s 212 people and at last count it was $1.3 million - and that's because you have to add in legal fees [laughter] on top of the bails and that's become very, it's become very expensive.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4241.0,4308.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nThank you so much.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4308.0,4309.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nThank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4309.0,4311.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"MILLICENT BROWN\n\nWe appreciate you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4311.0,4312.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964/transcript/87843/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"IMARA BRADLEY\n\nMm-hmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3440/collection_resources/164246/file/298964#t=4312.0,4313.5"}]}]}]}