California Baptist University

IS NOW

S ay their names . During the summer of 2020, masses took to the streets to protest the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black, unarmed victims of killings. Their names were shared, shouted and memorialized across the world in a unified outcry. For many, this pain led to mobilization. Adrian White, adjunct professor of photography, was one of the many who took to the streets to protest and capture the fiery chants and handmade signs through his camera. When recalling the various protests he covered in L.A., he says the protests were unlike anything that he had ever seen. “I would get a shot of a group of people and the sheer number of people was crazy, especially during this pandemic. The images of entire crowds wearing masks and (holding signs) — I can’t imagine protests like last summer ever happening again,” White says. The summer of 2020 certainly shook the world, but with all the time that has passed since then, the question stands: Did it leave behind lasting change? Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes, professor of history, says yes. “Since the Floyd protests, I witnessed a general sincere interest in the status of not just Black people, but people of color broadly,” says Davis Hayes. “Before the summer, the discussions I saw on racial disparity and inequity had always felt to me as intellectual or academic discussions. Now, they are critical conversations. Life and death. It’s no longer an article that you might run across. It is life. It has a heartbeat.” Davis-Hayes shares that as a result of these protests, racial reconciliation was sparked in her church. She was asked by her “relatively conservative church” to lead an anti-racism vacation Bible study, something she says she never anticipated happening prior to the protests. u Revisiting the impact of the summer protests and the need for activism

RIVERSIDE PROTESTER Protests for racial equality occurred all across the US.

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