Jackie Paul Sims (left) and Rienne J. Hill
Editor’s note: Longtime activist Jackie Paul Sims is a member of Community Oversight Now, a group of activists who successfully lobbied to establish a board of citizens to oversee the Metro Nashville Police Department in 2018. Sims is the mother of this week’s guest editor Adia Victoria. She introduces an essay by Victoria’s 16-year-old cousin Rienne J. Hill.
How excited I was to hear that my great-niece is involved with Teens for Equality. Here in Nashville, we are three generations of Black women, on different paths, intersecting, to do the work of social change. This work has always been a generational enterprise. The generations are not necessarily related, but the power from the transfer of wisdom, knowledge and understanding from generation to generation persists. The work of the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century, again in Nashville, is the perfect example.
I think about my training sitting under Dr. James Lawson, 12 years ago, when I moved to Nashville. I took two of my daughters to hear him and learn about nonviolent social resistance. Two generations earlier, Dr. Lawson also trained a young group of Freedom Riders from American Baptist Seminary, Fisk University, Tennessee A&I College (now Tennessee State University) and Meharry Medical College. A then-young John Lewis would become Congressman John Lewis, who made a lifetime commitment to social change. John Lewis would influence countless organizers and activists over the next generations. Some would be older, like me, but mostly they’d be younger, with the fire and energy to protect the union and its peoples as it continues to bend toward justice. Rienne is now making her debut in the work through the activist group Teens for Equality. She feels the urgency of now, because she has a very young brother whose future she wants to protect. Soon I will retire from the work, but this work of our nation becoming a more perfect union will carry on from generation to generation. Becoming is a work in progress! JPS
Why I Joined Teens for Equality
This summer, case after case of police killings of Black women, men and children began to flood the media. I read countless stories of Black Americans being assaulted and killed by the police. I began to realize that too often police do not see Black people as innocent, or even as people. You could be minding your own business and still be a target. And the police who kill us often still roam the streets. Where is the justice for the people who are killed?
Ever since George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer was caught on video, killings of other Black people by police have been receiving more attention. But why did it take Mr. Floyd being slayed for America to finally pay attention to the corruption in our justice system? I have recognized the privilege these officers hold. They abuse their power and get away with it, and the system protects them.
Seeing the protests this summer gave me hope, because they made me realize that I have a voice. Even though the state government passes unconstitutional laws to lock protestors up, they can’t silence us all. The inequality and injustice I have witnessed have inspired me and so many kids across the country to stand up for our future and demand change. My mother was concerned for my safety at the protests in downtown Nashville, and I understand. There is always the potential for violence when the people come out and demand change.
But soon enough I heard about a group called Teens for Equality that was organizing protests with thousands of people here in Nashville. I was inspired to see kids my age pushing for change in our community. Even friends of mine from school were organizers with Teens for Equality. I joined the group in July, and I will continue to organize and march for change, just like John Lewis and the student protestors did in Nashville in the 1960s. It’s up to kids to push for a better world and a better future.
I don’t want my little brother to grow up in a world where he has to fear for his life just because of the color of his skin. I am organizing to keep kids like us safe. I hope that other kids educate themselves on the injustices of this system, because our future is at stake. It’s up to us to stand and make our voices heard, even when it seems impossible. If we stand together against oppression and corruption, I know that things will change for the better. They can’t silence us all. RJH
