Bold action against racial profiling
'Jim Crow must go, from Cheektowaga to Buffalo'
By Leslie
Feinberg
Cheektowaga, N.Y.
"Jim Crow must go, from Cheektowaga to Buffalo!"
This demand, loudly chanted by a predominantly white group
of some two dozen protesters, reverberated throughout the
Walden Galleria mall in Cheektowaga, N.Y. March 31.
Walden Galleria is western New York's biggest shopping
mall. According to the owner, Pyramid Corp., 18 million
people visit the mall annually.
Charges of racism by Buffalo civil-rights leaders and area
Black residents are mounting against mall officials, town
police and judges. African Americans who shop, drive or
socialize in Cheektowaga are coming forward with accounts of
racist discrimination and police brutality.
"The Black community in Buffalo and outlying areas is
roiling with anger and organizing to stop this apartheid
system of segregation. That's what this institutionalized
racist profiling, discrimination and police brutality is
meant to maintain," local International Action Center
organizer Bev Hiestand told Workers World.
The direct action at the mall grew out of a recent
International Women's Day potluck supper organized by the
women's committee of the Buffalo IAC, Hiestand explained. The
supper drew organizers from the struggle for women's
reproductive freedom and activists from the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender communities.
Monica Moorehead, a national Workers World Party leader,
urged people to consider doing something to mark the
anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
"There was a lot of interest that night about doing something
to extend solidarity to the African American community as
anti-racist allies," Hiestand said. "We met a couple of
nights later and that's when we gave birth to the idea to
take the struggle against racism into the mall."
On the morning of March 31, the group met in a nearby
parking lot and donned T-shirts emblazoned with the words
"Stop racist profiling." Once inside the mall, everyone took
off their coats so their shirts were visible.
They walked in teams four abreast, crisscrossing the mall
so that all the shoppers could clearly see their message.
As mall security, beefed up by Cheektowaga cops, radioed
reports of the protesters' presence to each other, the
activists headed for the huge food court. That's where Black
youths have reportedly been most harassed and expelled by
security officers.
Once there, two activists tied an 18-foot banner to the
railing facing the food court that read: "Pyramid
Corporation: Shopping while Black--No crime!"
Security officers--who expel people for leafleting--tried
to pass out fliers to the group informing them that they
would be arrested if they didn't leave. But the group,
refusing to take the leaflets, chanted even louder.
Some Black shoppers joined in the anti-Jim-Crow chant.
Some white shoppers nodded in agreement.
Solidarity in word and deed
As the Jim Crow busters headed slowly toward the mall
exit, chanting all the while, to meet with reporters gathered
outside, mall security forces targeted the only Black woman
visible in the group of about 20 still inside.
A mall security official began pushing and shoving Loretta
Renford, a longtime Buffalo activist against racism and
police brutality. One of the white activists--who is lesbian
and transgendered--immediately pushed him away and kept him
physically at bay from Renford.
The security official then ordered police to arrest the
white woman who defended Renford. But Renford put her arm
around the woman and proclaimed to the cops, "No you
won't!"
Mall security cops brutally forced two local television
station camera operators to stop filming the incident.
Once outside, the entire group formed a circle around both
Renford and the white activist to ensure that neither would
be harassed or arrested by cops.
Several cops suddenly bolted into a run up to the parking
garage when they saw two other anti-racists drop a
nine-foot-wide banner over the side. It read "Stop racist
profiling."
One of the children who took part in the event held up a
sign in the parking lot that read: "Booted out for not being
bigots."
The media, angered by the rough treatment they had
received at the hands of security, asked for a news
conference. So the group traveled to a nearby Post Office
parking lot for interviews.
Cheektowaga cops began driving into the parking lot to
further harass protesters. But when news cameras swung around
to film them, they quickly drove off.
Renford told the media about being targeted--the only
Black protester store security could see at that point--and
roughed up. "The cop that was shoving me, what came to my
mind is: You see how they put on their uniforms and get this
arrogance about them? When he put his hands on me he was just
wanting me to escalate. Do you see how quick they are to be
violent?"
Renford told a Workers World reporter: "I watched the
faces of some of the shoppers in the mall. Some of them with
children looked horrified like they wanted to shield their
faces and ears. I wonder if they stop to think about the
horror and trauma that is done to African American children
when their parents or loved ones are stopped and dehumanized
and called all sorts of names and beaten.
"When people say racism doesn't exist or that it is okay
to put people in their places--do they understand the real
trauma that is done to our children?"
Renford concluded, telling reporters, "Racism must be
kicked to the curb."
The anti-Jim-Crow action was the top news story in Buffalo
that day. It received coverage on television Channels 2 and
4, WBEN radio and in the Sunday Buffalo News.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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