She experienced the tumultuous ’60s with a blend of innocence and ‘stand up for what’s right’ conviction
My mom is a natural storyteller. It only helps her storytelling that she grew up when American history was a living, breathing movie even Steven Spielberg couldn’t dream up.
The history I learned through textbooks and documentaries, my mom witnessed firsthand on a small boxy television. In black and white, she saw Lee Harvey Oswald get shot while being escorted to jail. In color, she watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. These massive moments in history happened before she was even in high school.
My mom, Cecelia Lacayo, is now a 64-year-old MSNBC fan who cares intensely about the…
Hampton’s story, even in the abbreviated form that ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ provides, is too important not to tell
“Fred Hampton was on track to do a great many things before being gunned down in his sleep at the age of 21 by the Chicago Police Department: found the Rainbow Coalition, expand free breakfast programs across Chicago, open a free health clinic, and perhaps save the Black Panther Party from the obvious targets of its iconic trinity (and a few inner demons) in Newton, Seale, and Cleaver. Hampton was the kind of recruit the Black Panthers were starving for, and despite his young age he quickly took to the work with the steady hand of an experienced activist. A…
Thank you so much. She's a wonderful example of that.
Jada Gomez
Senior Platform Editor at Medium. Girl with the long last name from the Empire State. NYU Alum. Runner. Puppy Mommy. Smiler.
