Thread by @NBCNews

SPECIAL REPORT: Black Lives Matter protests lit up a Midwestern city. Now young activists face the fallout.

Reporting by @tylerkingkade.

nbcnews.to/3txlpSY

(1/8) #NBCNewsThreads

@tylerkingkade During recent interviews, 15 Iowa residents who joined the protests described finding a calling, transforming restaurant managers and landscapers to the leaders of marches.

People who had never attended a city council meeting are now running for a seat. (2/8)

@tylerkingkade While protesters had some early victories — including a ban on racial profiling in Des Moines, and restoration of felons’ voting rights in Iowa — they’ve faced consequences.

Several are still awaiting trial, some on felony charges that could result in prison sentences.

(3/8)

@tylerkingkade Some who protested in Des Moines say they were denied housing and jobs when employers and landlords found out about their arrests, while others have been under house arrest for months waiting for trial. (4/8)

@tylerkingkade “It always has been a struggle and it’s going to continue to be a struggle,” says Jaylen Cavil, 24, a Black organizer whom police accused of creating a “grave danger” to the public by leading marches in the street.

“As we gain more power, we’re going to see more pushback.” (5/8)

@tylerkingkade In internal city emails included among nearly 2,000 pages of documents obtained by @NBCNews, police leaders argued to elected officials that they were in a “no win situation,” fending off assaults by demonstrators who wanted to create chaos and see them out of a job. (6/8)

@tylerkingkade After a quieter winter, protesters returned to the streets of Des Moines this spring to combat a push by Republican state lawmakers to increase penalties for protest-related crimes and ban teaching in schools that the country is fundamentally racist or sexist. (7/8)

@tylerkingkade “We’re at a crossroads,” says Justyn Lewis, a Black activist who started the nonprofit Des Moines’ Selma to provide implicit bias training, and is running for City Council.

“And good Lord, I feel like the temperature is getting hotter.”

nbcnews.to/3txlpSY

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