Five months after Eric Garner was wrestled to the ground in Staten Island, New York — and with his final pleas of “I can’t breathe” very much on her mind — Salwa Abdussabur was riding the New York subway on her way to the Millions March. It was crowded and hot, despite the plummeting December temperatures. The air buzzed as the doors opened and closed with their customary ding and swoosh. Then a man with long dreadlocks got on.
“He just started chanting ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.’ We all joined in, and you could feel the energy,” she said.
Paul Bass Photo
Salwa (pictured) joined her dad, host Shaifq Abdussabur; local activist Latrice Hampton (pictured below); and State Sen. Gary Holder-Winfield commemorated the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, on a episode of WNHH’s “Urban Talk Radio” to reflect on the “Black Lives Matter” movement that emerged nationwide as more deaths, such as Garner’s, riveted the nation’s attention on the relationship between law enforcement and African-American civilians.
Click on the sound file at the top of this story to listen to the program.
