Chicago Tribune

Jacob Blake's grandmother talks about the family's civil rights history, and hopes to continue the legacy

CHICAGO - On the hottest day in August, Patricia Goudeau Blake had a lot to do at her lifelong home in Park Manor after spending nine months in Washington state.

Her beloved garden, particularly her sunbaked black-eyed Susans, desperately needed tending. The spry, active great-grandmother was also supervising a redesign of the home her family has owned for 71 years. She was the very first Black child living on the block.

But the most difficult thing on Blake's list was added at the last moment. The matriarch was planning a weekend trip to a Kenosha hospital to see her 29-year-old grandson, Jacob Blake, whose shooting by police has gripped the nation and stoked tensions between police and communities

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