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It’s being heralded as an image that will go down in history as perfectly encapsulating the racial tensions that are tearing America apart.
It’s even been compared to the iconic ‘80s photograph of a man standing peacefully – yet defiantly – in the path of a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square.
Today the woman captured in this photograph – which has been beamed around the world – has been identified by The Daily Mail as Ieshia Evans, a 28-year-old mother and nurse from New York. According to the Daily Mail, the weekend protest in Baton Rouge was the first time she had ever attended a protest, and she was arrested, according to friends.
To many, Ieshia’s poise and stillness perfectly symbolises black America’s resolute, and calm defiance against police brutality and violence.
Yet Ieshia is not the only woman who has emerged as a figure of peaceful protest and courage.
It was Diamond Lavish Reynolds who broadcast the aftermath of her fiancé’s shooting last week – and consequently sparked a wave of protests that has engulfed parts of the US.
She and Philando Castile, a school cafeteria manager, were returning from the grocery store when police stopped them for a broken taillight. According to Reynolds, Castile told the officer that he had a permit to carry a weapon. The officer then asked for Castile’s licence and registration, and as he reached for the ID, the officer then shot him multiple times.
It’s a scenario that happens to black people far too often (According to The Washington Post, 512 people have been killed by police so far this year). But what Diamond did next ensured that this particular event would never go unnoticed: she pulled out her phone and began calmly streaming on Facebook Live.
With Castile visible in the frame, his white t-shirt soaked in blood – and with her four-year-old daughter in the backseat – Reynolds filmed the rest of the encounter. “I wanted it to go viral so the people could see” she later told reporters. “I wanted everybody in the world to see what the police do.”
Together, these women have proved that true strength can be quiet– and that a single moment of defiance can shape a nation’s story.
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