The Powerful Story Behind the Viral Image of a Mom and Her Baby at Protests

Protests have been sparking across the country due to the unjust killing of George Floyd by a police officer on May 25. The public outcry has stirred up powerful messages not only about how we can do better as a country, but how we as parents can raise a generation of anti-racist children. Recognizing what these events mean for her son’s future, one mom brought her baby to witness a protest in Chicago—and her story is now going viral.

D’Asia Hervey was hesitant to protest at first, but her mother, Stephanie Woodall-Wilson, urged her to go and to bring her 7-month-old son, Matthew. Hervey became emotional when she saw the protest. She was captured with her son in a series of photographs by photographer Amber Green. The images show Hervey in the backseat of her mom’s car holding her son looking at the scene unfolding around him.

When Hervey saw the scene on the streets of her city, she became emotional. It was beautiful. “When I actually went and saw my own generation fighting, it was amazing,” she told TODAY Parents. “I told him to look at what everybody was doing for his future,” said Hervey. “And then, my mom was like, ‘Look, Matthew, this is for you — this is so people can understand that you are not a threat when you’re walking down the street.’”

Hervey’s mom was the victim of police brutality herself in the 90s, when she was attacked by police officers simply for driving past them after dropping off her kids to their babysitter. Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood with mostly black friends, Woodall-Wilson stated it’s been inspiring to see a generation that has so much love and acceptance for those different from them.

“I wanted my daughter to see what it’s like for mothers with sons—to worry about them all the time, regardless of their age,” she told the outlet.

Green took the photos of Hervey at the protest because she identified with her as a mother. “I have an 11-year-old son,” Green said. “As a mother of a black boy, I will have to have the conversation about when he will be approached or pulled over by the police. I will tell him to do whatever the police tell him to do just to come back home alive.”

Later, Green shared the photos to Facebook, writing, “I don’t know this woman, yet our tears speak the same language of anger, pain and yes, fear for our sons…as the car started driving off, me and the mother locked eyes, gave each other the nod of the head and we both put our fist on the air.”

The post has gone viral, with over 98,000 reactions, 148,000 shares and 8,500 comments, where Hervey was soon identified as the mother in the photos.

“I want him to know that being black shouldn’t make you a target, but unfortunately it will,” Hervey said. “I don’t like that one day I’m going to have to tell him how to act with the police, but I also don’t want everyone telling him that all cops are bad because it’s not all cops, it’s certain ones.”

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