In the flurry of videos and social media posts that have emerged from the protests in Portland, Ore., activist moms are everywhere. They sing lullabies. They link arm–in–arm, forming a human barricade between protesters and federal agents. Some wear respirators, gas masks and helmets. Some hand out sunflowers.
On one night of protests last week, they chanted, “Feds stay clear! The moms are here!” On another, they repeated the word, “Mama,” over and over, echoing a final plea from George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in May.
The “Wall of Moms,” as the group calls itself, formed after Beverley Barnum, who goes by “Bev,” 35, a mother of two in Portland, scrolled through social media posts one night in bed and saw videos of federal agents placing protesters in unmarked vehicles. Through a Facebook group, she rallied a few dozen moms who then showed up at a demonstration on the night of July 18.
Since then, the Wall of Moms has continued to protest nightly in Portland, with hundreds of women dressed in yellow to identify themselves as participants turning out. A Wall of Dads has also joined the front lines of the protests, many carrying leaf blowers to redirect the tear gas that federal agents have deployed.
More recently, new chapters of Wall of Moms collectives have mobilized across the country, with several turning out at demonstrations on Saturday. A group of about 50 Wall of Moms participants marched in Seattle as clashes between police and protesters intensified, said Christine Edgar, who helped organize the local chapter. One of those arrested, Sonia Alexander, 46, a mother of two, said she was taken to the emergency room after a flash-bang grenade exploded near her leg.
A delegation in Oakland, Calif., waved large peace signs and marched at the front of a demonstration; one mom carried a sign that read, “Schedule: Bath time, Bed time, Fight fascists, Defend Black lives, Repeat.” In Aurora, Colo., on Saturday, the Wall of Moms held arms and flowers at a protest in honor of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old who died last summer after police in Aurora restrained him with a chokehold. At Saturday’s demonstration, a person was shot and wounded after a car drove through the crowd.
Wall of Moms groups in Missouri, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Chicago and Maryland are reaching out to local activists and plotting their next steps, organizers from each group said in interviews.
Gia Gilk, 45, a mother in Albuquerque, N.M., started a Facebook group to organize a local Wall of Moms chapter last week, thinking she would attract 30 or 40 members. Within 24 hours, she said, almost 3,000 moms had signed up. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Gilk, about coordinating the group. “I just think it’s time for us to finally stand up.”
The Wall of Moms exists to protect and amplify protesters, organizers say. An official online “tool kit” (designed by the group in Portland) for starting a Wall of Moms chapter, stresses that groups should reach out to local Black Lives Matter and racial justice organizations. Wall of Moms members are directed to take cues from local activists: to not speak at protests unless they’re asked, and to donate any funds raised to Black-led organizations.
Wall of Moms marchers are mostly white, and many are first-time protesters.
The Wall of Moms groups consist of predominantly white women who have garnered a swell of attention that Black mothers protesting in Portland for months did not receive, participants and organizers said in interviews. That attention is not lost on the participants nor the organizations they partner with, some said. “Black moms are leading this,” said Jennifer Kristiansen, 37, a lawyer and Wall of Moms member who was arrested during a Portland demonstration. “Moms didn’t just show up a couple nights ago. Black moms have always been there.”
For some longtime activists, the Wall of Moms’ momentum demonstrates how widespread the movement against racism and police brutality has become. “These moms are realizing people need protection,” said Nicole Roussell, 32, who helped organize a protest in Washington D.C. on Saturday where Wall of Moms members showed up. “They’re spontaneously popping up all around the country, days before the protest, and then coming out — it just really shows the current movement is getting broader and wider and deeper.”
In Portland, Wall of Moms has partnered with Don’t Shoot Portland, a police accountability organization. “Most of them have never protested before. They felt called,” said Tai Carpenter, 29, the president of Don’t Shoot Portland. “A lot of us have been on the front lines for a long time organizing. To come in at a moment like this, it’s crazy. These moms are seeing it head-on — it’s a different perspective.”
Julianne Jackson, 35, a longtime activist and Portland mother who helped lead Wall of Moms at a march last week, said the group provides a powerful symbol. “When you see a mom get tear-gassed, and they’re very clearly labeled a mom, they’re not starting trouble, they’re wearing high-waisted pants and trying to live their life. When you see that, it’s an incredible sight,” Jackson said.
Mothers have a legacy role in protest movements.
Mothers have long played a critical role in activism in the U.S., but particularly of late. In 2015 in Chicago, Black mothers founded Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings, a community group focused on violence prevention and food and housing insecurity. Mothers of the Movement, a collective of Black women whose children were killed in clashes with the police or by gun violence, have traveled across the country since 2016 to speak about their experiences and push for legislative change. And in June, Maebel Gebremedhin, 33, a Brooklyn mother of three, organized a local Children’s March focused on families and kids.
Back in 2013, Collette Flanagan started Mothers Against Police Brutality, after police in Dallas killed her son Clinton Allen. While her group is not affiliated with Wall of Moms, Flanagan said in an interview that she supports them and is “in awe” of them. “The power of being a mother, whether you have lost a child or not, is that because you’re a mother, you’re able to absorb another mother’s pain,” she said. “That becomes a very powerful chain of resistance,” she said.
The Wall of Moms groups are using that bond between mothers in the way it should be used, she said. “It can’t be penetrated. That’s why people are noticing, because there’s nothing else like it.”
That unifying connection is part of what has drawn moms to join the protest. For the last few nights, Savanna Taylor, 28, of Portland, has found someone (usually her mom) to watch her 4-year-old son, so she could join the Wall of Moms in front of the courthouse. Some nights she arrived back home between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., after hours of marching and chanting, after federal agents deployed so much tear gas that some of the mothers she locked arms with had vomited and wet themselves, she said. “Seeing moms in solidarity is what gets people, because they know we’ve got kids at home. We’re trying to protect everyone’s kids as if they were our own,” Taylor said.
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‘The Moms Are Here’: ‘Wall of Moms’ Groups Mobilize Nationwide - The New York Times
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