Twenty-four-year-old D'Asia Hervey of Chicago wasn't sure if she wanted to attend a protest for the murder of George Floyd — especially with her nearly 8-month-old son, Matthew Hervey, in tow. But her mother, Stephanie Woodall-Wilson of Hammond, Indiana, urged her to go. Now photographs of the mom, inspired and brought to tears by the large, diverse crowds of people at the event, have gone viral — and are a reminder of exactly why people are hoping to win this fight.
The moving photos were captured by chance when photographer Amber Marie Green, who was also at the protest, noticed the moment.
Green, mother to an 11-year-old son and owner of Amber Marie Green Photography, tells CafeMom that as a well-known photographer in the South Side of Chicago, she felt it was her "duty to capture this part of history."
She's speaking of the protests that have been ongoing since last week across all 50 states in response to a Minnesota police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd, a black man, for nearly nine minutes on May 25. USA Today reported that while Chauvin held his knee to Floyd's neck, Floyd pleaded "I can't breathe," but Chauvin didn't release him — even after Floyd lost consciousness. He died shortly afterward.
Green was at one of the protests May 30 in Chicago. "I want to educate the public on what is really happening," she explains to us.
As Green was taking photos of the protest, her eyes caught on a young mother in one of the cars driving by.
It was a car parade, Woodall-Wilson tells us. One that the grandmother and Hervey had been driving in for 45 minutes to show their support. Later they got out of the car and joined the protest on foot for about three hours.
"I happened to notice that there were people taking pictures," Woodall-Wilson remembers, "so I said, 'D'Asia, go ahead and let them see you and Matthew because this about your future and his and you're going to see what it's like for mothers — because she's a new mom — to worry about their adult children, or their young child, or your son. You need to understand why I worry so much.'"
Woodall-Wilson was a victim of police brutality in the '90s, she told Today.com, when she was "attacked by three cops for just driving by them" after dropping off her four children at a babysitter. It was another reason, amongst many, why she wanted to show up and let her voice be heard.
It just so happened that Green was right by the car when Hervey held her son to the window.
"I saw a mother holding her son while weeping," Green tells us. "She kept encouraging him to look at the protesters."
"I didn't even see her," Hervey says. "I saw her take the picture but I didn't even notice she was taking a picture of me."
Green immediately knew what Hervey was feeling -- she has a young black son too.
"As a mother of a black boy, I will have to have 'the conversation' of WHEN he will be approached and or pulled over by the police," Green explains. "That I will tell him to do whatever the police tell him to do just to come back home alive. Every parent of a black boy has had 'the conversation.'"
She says it was a "knee jerk reaction" for her to snap the photo, but what she captured was a mother both afraid and hopeful for her son's future.
"I was actually crying because I was really happy and amazed to see people my age, of all races: Chinese people, Koreans, whites, blacks, Mexicans. I saw Arabs. It was amazing to see everyone, in one area, protesting, for one reason," Hervey recalls. "It didn't matter where they came from; they were all there for one reason. That was amazing."
As she held Matthew in her arms, she pointed outside to the protestors.
"I told him to look at what everybody was doing for his future," Hervey told Today.com. "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.'"
The moment was fleeting but meaningful for Green as well.
"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," Green later wrote on Facebook.
Still not knowing who the mom in the car was, Green posted the photos on her Facebook page, where they clearly struck a chord.
More than 152,000 people have shared Green's photo, and the pictures have amassed more than 98,000 likes. In fact, the two women may have never gotten to know one another except some friends who knew Hervey saw the post and tagged her, causing her and Green to get in touch.
"She reached via Facebook messenger saying (jokingly) take the photos down because she looks a mess," Green recalls. Through their conversation, Green found out that Woodall-Wilson, Hervey, and her son are homeless.
"I'm more passionate now to help them," she explains.
Woodall-Wilson says that overall the day was peaceful and they left before things turned violent.
But the grandmother wants to stress that Matthew was safe "1001%." As she walked by people, Woodall-Wilson says she was telling the "young adults" that they need to "run for Congress and put in some new seats, get rid of those old seats, those old traditions, those old ways, those old newspapers, those old hairstyles, those old pants, that old money. Get rid of all of that. Run for office. Because all of them love each other. All of them different ethnic groups out there."
Hervey had a great time too, despite her earlier hesitation.
"[Matthew] said 'Hi' to everybody, everybody was saying 'Hi' to him," Hervey adds. "It was fun. I actually did enjoy myself."
As for the photos' internet popularity, Hervey says she thinks the experience was "pretty cool" and hopes it will bring about some change.
"Now they'll see what the big picture's really about," she says. "And making sure that when [Matthew] gets older, he's not still doing this type of stuff."
Now that her photos have been seen by so many people, Green says she challenges everyone to "help their fellow resident, business owner, and community."
"It's hard now but we must stick together," she implores.
Hervey agrees.
"It's not going to change unless you make it change. So sitting at home and watching it on your phone, watching it on the computer, and reading about it. It's not going to cause it to change," she says. "You have to get up and go. Get up and make your voice heard."
