Local Activists Reflect On Their Ferguson Experiences, Ties
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- For three months, you've seen the pictures and the crowds through many a lens. But University of Minnesota sophomore Eric Bauer saw it with his own eyes.
"It tugged on my emotions in ways that I didn't expect at all," Bauer said.
Along with about a dozen others, he made the trek south to Ferguson, Missouri, to stand for Michael Brown, a teenager he never knew.
He says he was overwhelmed by the armed guards as he stood outside the police station for days.
"That's something that was terrifying for me and I'm white, middle class, privileged. I'm a college student, I'm not a member of a targeted community," Bauer said.
He says he peacefully stood because Brown no longer can.
"I expected to be angry, I expected to be sad, what I did not expect was to come away from the experience feeling extremely confident in humanity," he said.
Kenya Womack says she too saw hope on the ground.
"It's hard to explain, it's just something you have to see," Womack said. "If you don't see it, you won't know."
And she knows the area well. She grew up in St. Louis, and her grandmother lives in Ferguson.
"Last night she was locked up in her home, she didn't leave, she locked her car up, she didn't leave," she said.
Amongst the uproar, she insists there is some calm. Womack says her grandmother talks often of the peaceful marches on her street. She says watching from afar is not seeing up close.
"I want people to know that my people are gonna, they're gonna come together and they're gonna rally, they're gonna protest and they're gonna be peaceful while they do it," Womack said.
It's not just students. Communities United Against Police Brutality rallied Tuesday evening in Minneapolis. They say they're in the process of organizing more upcoming trips for Minnesotans to travel to Ferguson.
Bauer says even though he doesn't know anyone directly involved in the situation, he referred to his travel and activism in Ferguson as "social responsibility."
