Teri, aged 74, has lived in Louisville and worked as a teacher for decades. She’s now part of the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement, which campaigns for reparations for Black Americans. Teri will be giving Biden her vote but, as she says in the video above, with an important caveat: “I don’t want him to think he can backstab and forget us. I want him to remember that we built this country.”
That sentiment was echoed by many of the activists I’ve spoken to in this city. Jecorey Arthur – also in the video – is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Louisville City Council. He told me he’ll be voting ‘down ballot’, which means voting in the local race, but not the presidential one.
Milly Martin, who knew Breonna Taylor, also cited Biden’s infamous role in the ‘Crime Bill’ – the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act – which resulted in skyrocketing incarceration rates. She put it bluntly: “I do not like him at all.”
Others like Latoia Stafford take a more pragmatic approach but, as you can see from her face in the video, ‘unenthusiastic’ would be an understatement.
Looking ahead, I asked Stafford what she thinks is missing from the media coverage of this moment in US history. She answered instantly: “They’re missing the love. The passion. The community. They’re missing the truth, honestly – because if you’re not out with us here from sun up till sun down every day, you’re missing all the good.
“There’s been music and art produced here, new relationships formed. We’ve saved some of our homeless people. We’re bringing a Black fresh food market to the West End.”
“So what I’d say to people who are home, who aren’t in the streets: dig a little deeper. And then maybe you’ll come out too.”
Follow me on Twitter @maryftz to get live updates on the ground in key swing states during the final days of the US election.
And subscribe to the ourVoices podcast to hear the full interviews with Jecorey Arthur and other Louisville residents, released this week.
Read all our election coverage.
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Mary Fitzgerald | Radio Free (2020-10-31T10:49:23+00:00) From the streets in Louisville: ‘No justice, No Halloween’. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/10/31/from-the-streets-in-louisville-no-justice-no-halloween/
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