‘We need to keep speaking out’: Racial justice in rural America
The latest census data for this Old West town tucked into the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains counts 31 Black residents among its population of almost 4,600. Kevin Thomas figures he knows at least half of them.
“It’s not hard,” he says. “When you’re Black in small-town Wyoming, you’re aware of one another.”
Mr. Thomas, a Texas native, moved to Buffalo a decade ago, seeking distance from the drugs and violence that ensnared him in his hometown of Galveston. A husband and father, he has steadied his life here, working as a nursing assistant and running a landscaping business.
Given that 9 out of 10 residents are white in his adopted town, Mr. Thomas never expected its streets to provide the backdrop for a protest in support of Black Lives Matter and racial justice. Three weeks ago, when he learned of a planned demonstration only a couple of hours ahead of time, he rushed home to round up his two children.
They donned T-shirts showing a raised fist above the hashtag #BLM and joined more than 75 people to march a half-mile from the county justice center to the town square. Nearly
“Silence sustains the status quo”Impatient hopefulness