Why I March With My Children

Bringing my 13- and 15-year-olds to a Birmingham march was absolutely the right thing to do

Demonstrators gather at the Navy Memorial to support Black Lives Matter during the Black Mamas March a protest against police brutality and racial inequality in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd on June 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo: Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

With masks covering our faces, my daughters and I marched for justice in downtown Birmingham.

On Juneteenth.

During a pandemic.

Because my daughters need to know how to stand up for others and for themselves.

Call: Black Lives

Response: Matter!

I signed up for a lifetime of discussions about race when I walked down the aisle in 2001 and married my husband, Ken, who is White. We knew race would be a part of our story, especially after our daughters were born. We both have faced questions about their racial identity, and our daughters have been called Hispanic, Asian, and Polynesian. My daughters identify as mixed, but they know society views them as Black.

The event, called the Alabama Rally Against Injustice, was surrounded by civil rights history. It began in Kelly Ingram Park, the same park where dogs and fire hoses confronted Black children in 1963. The park sits in the shadow of the 16th Street Baptist Church, where a bomb killed four little girls. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement in the city, is across the…