Thread by @gwen_fulton

Today in #GRAHAMNC I went to a permitted March to the Polls lead by Rev Drumwright and others. Starting at a Black AME church, Rev Drumwright started the march by asking folks what our intentions were. TO VOTE the crowd chanted. Its the last day of Early Voting in #NC.

We then marched, escorted by police, about half a mile towards the center of Graham, chanting and singing. We moved slowly, because of the many elderly folks and families with small children. Graham is a small town in #AlamanceCounty.

Alamance County is known as "No Chance Alamance" because of rampant inequality and a judicial system generally known to be hostile to Black and Brown folks, and poor white folks. We believe that we can change that at the polls this year.

As the march approached the center of Graham where a large Confederate statue is, we kneeled in rememberance of George Floyd. His neice and nephew were in the crowd.

Moments after we were done kneeling a police officer started to yell that we had to be off the street. Folks were confused because we had been escorted there and had a permit. I moved my child up onto the sidewalk. They started pepper spraying us. My child couldn't run because

He was wearing his halloween costume. I saw a little girl, maybe four years old, dressed as a princess sobbing and rubbing her eyes as we tried to make our way up the sidewalk. We were running so I didnt catch anything on film. I have no idea where the spray was even coming from.

Police arrested Rev Drumwright and 19 others. They arrested Dreama Caldwell's campaign manager-- Dreama is running for County Commissioner and if elected, she will be the first Black woman ever to serve in Alamance. As a reminder, we were marching to the goddamn polls. That's it.

I got my kid our of there, obviously, but the police assualts kept coming. At some point the seemed to allow the event to go on as planned, with speeches from the court house steps, but they had everyone penned in to a small space

While the speeches were happening, armed SWAT looking officers came out of the court house, standing on the steps above the speakers. Within moments, they descended down into the speakers and the small crowd around the speakers. It looked like they were attacking them.

My biggest takeaway: The NeoConfederates who are ALWAYS out & confrontational nearly every weekend in Graham stood back. Instead of jeering the march like they did in July (last time Drumwright mobilized) they stood back, way on the othersode of the courthouse and just watched.

One might wonder why their behavior was so different today and why they kept their distance, almost like they knew more than we did.

Here is something I wrote about Graham earlier this summer, for context, about how the local sheriff personally stands guard at the Confederate Monument practically day and night: link.medium.com/WK7W0bER2ab

And here is something I wrote about the neoconfederate protestors out in Graham every weekend... from one Southern white to another. link.medium.com/oOQLa9BR2ab

i think the number of folks arrested in my thread might be wrong. i have also heard 12 and 16. Its confusing because it was two different law enforcement agencies, one in particular with a long history of abuses and, well, chaos.