Dear Friends,

I began my work with racial injustice in 1995 at Muscle Shoals High School in Muscle Shoals, AL. Back then, we were not allowed to celebrate Black History Month in school. Our principal, Dr. Harry D. Smith, was still practicing illegal segregation, 27 years after Jim Crow. Black children were segregated during certain school activities. I pushed the conversation forward, held meetings with my principal and teachers, and spoke out about racial injustice to anyone who would listen. The following year, post graduation, my advocacy efforts were successful, and the school conducted its first Black history program.  

Years later, in 2014, I held a community meeting in Florence, AL, at the height of the Ferguson riots to discuss racial injustice. The discussion was an anomaly for our community and, ultimately, a catalyst for social change and the birth of the nonprofit organization Project Say Something.  Over the past ten years, our work has continued to receive national and international recognition for our commitment to dismantling white supremacist narratives and ideologies.  We serve our North AL communities by providing Doula services, reproductive justice education, and community engagement. We also serve the entire state advocating for equitable policies and challenging legislation that has the potential to harm Black Alabamians. In 2020, we held the first sustained protest in North, AL, in an effort to relocate the Lauderdale County Confederate monuments. Though the monument still stands, our resistance exposed the white supremacist culture that exists in our community.  We were threatened by the KKK, the Proud Boys and received countless death threats. Five years later, we continue to advocate for the relocation of ALL confederate monuments in Alabama.  

I am humbled and grateful for Project Say Something’s growth, development, support, and, beyond all else our commitment to fight for the elevation of Black voices in the Deep South.