A movement isn’t a movement without the moving stories of the courageous, determined people who are pushing against the status quo and stirring the rest of us from our complacent slumber.
Would you like to know the story of the woman in this iconic image?
I MET HER LAST WEEK.
On my evening walk with my pup, I spotted a tall, willowy woman in a flowing summer dress posting something on a telephone pole up ahead. Her hair was tied up in a colorful scarf. As I moved closer, I saw it was a Black Power poster with a BLM sticker attached.
“Did you make this?” I asked. “Are you the artist?”
“I’m not the artist,” she said. “I’m the woman on the sticker.”
My brain tried to reconcile her words with the image, but I thought I was looking at something straight out of the 60s.
“What’s your number?” she laughed, rescuing me from my confusion by texting me a photo her daughter had taken near Minneapolis’ Third Precinct the week of George Floyd’s murder—a photo that has since gone viral.
Perhaps you’ve seen it.
Perhaps it stirred something in you.
Perhaps you’re curious to know who this woman is, and what led her to this moment.
BOLD, BEAUTIFUL, AND BLACK
Maybe you’d find it interesting (as I did) to know this woman was once a runway model in 1970s New York when Grace Jones was the only Black model getting hired for the big jobs. Or that she was the first Black makeup artist at Dayton’s beauty counters. Or that a Minneapolis music executive once berated her for wanting to promote concerts to the local Black community, and she did it anyway. (Still does, in fact.) Or that Pam Grier, the actress who played Foxy Brown, once christened her the new Foxy Brown.
Maybe you’d find it disturbing (as I did) to learn that when she and her white boyfriend bought a home together back in 1987, they became the first multiracial family living on the coveted shores of Minneapolis’ Lake Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) and their presence there was technically forbidden by the original property deed.
Maybe you’d find it mind-blowing (as I did) to know this age-defying woman has a daughter who’s older than you think she is and she’s a great-grandma who’s redefining the sixties for all of us.
But here’s what I really want you to know.
A HISTORY OF LOVE
The woman behind this powerful image is the optimistic, effervescent, big-hearted, and fiercely determined Pamela Weems, aka Foxxy Love.
Her family was kidnapped from the Gold Coast of Africa and sold as slaves to a plantation in South Carolina that was called, of all things, the Love Plantation.
Her great-grandmother, Sarah Love, was the first person in the Love family to ever be born free in America. It was 1871. Since then, her family has been walking the long, exhausting road of fighting to enjoy the same freedoms we white folks take for granted—the freedoms we have been stingy with, at best, and criminally, murderously greedy with, at worst.
THE SYMBOL WE NEED
What was stolen from Pamela’s family has never been repaid. It has never even been officially acknowledged. Other countries who’ve oppressed entire populations have erected monuments, museums, and memorials to their victims, so they would never forget (and never repeat) their abominations.
Instead, our country has erected and protected monuments to the very people who tortured, enslaved, bought, sold, and dehumanized our fellow human beings. And that’s just a symbol of the deeper issues (and consequences) we white Americans have not yet been able to fully own. Or shake.
Which is why we need fresh symbols.
Symbols that remind us of what’s wrong with our systems.
Symbols that show us the power, beauty, frustration, anger, resilience, and hope of our Black brothers and sisters.
Symbols that call us to something better.
Symbols that demand justice in a country that promises liberty and justice for all.
Symbols of our neighbors, who we meet while out on walks with our pups, who deserve to be heard, believed, defended, honored, and asked for forgiveness.
Symbols like this.
“BLM means Black Lives Matter,” says Pamela, “but, to me, it means Black Love Matters. It’s all about love.”
If you want a Black Love Matters shirt ($20), poster ($10), or sticker ($5), DM Pamela on Instagram at @lovepromo00 or contact “Pamela Weems” on Facebook.
Here’s to all the beautiful, sacred, hard, good things Black lives have to teach us, friends. May we white folks be finally listening, humbly learning, and actively supporting.
#blacklivesmatter
xo
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The iconic black and white BLM design, featuring Pamela, was designed by Scott Neff, a collage artist based in Minneapolis. You can find him on Instagram at @theimagebutcher.com.
