Former Ann Arbor resident reflects on saving man from beating

[struggle4progress]

By Martin Slagter
on June 24, 2016 at 11:26 AM
updated June 24, 2016 at 11:57 AM

... Thomas' moment came under unexpected circumstances – crouched over a white supremacist sympathizer, providing a human shield from anti-Ku Klux Klan protesters who began attacking him at a rally 20 years ago.

The image of Thomas, then an 18-year-old black teenager living in Ann Arbor, protecting the man decked in a confederate flag shirt and sporting an SS tattoo, has become an iconic symbol of peace and altruistic virtue for many over the past two decades ...

"We all have a conscience and it was my responsibility to do what I felt was right," Thomas said in a phone interview on June 23, the day after the 20-year anniversary of the incident ...

Thomas, who now resides in Houston, learned McKeel Jr. died a couple of months ago when McKeel's son called to inform her, putting his 12-year-old sister on the line to tell her she might not be alive if it hadn't been for Thomas' actions that day ...

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2016/06/saving_man_from_beating_at_kkk.html

[forest444]

1. I visited some years ago; great college town. Some very nice people there.

On a lighter note, check out Zingermann's Deli if you're ever in Ann Arbor. Mercy!

[99th_Monkey]

2. This is beautiful, and speaks to an earlier OP I posted.

What Democrats Need to Know About Violence at Trump Rallies
Does rioting make Trump stronger?
By Rick Perlstein * Alternet/Washington Spectator * June 26, 2016

This spring, Donald Trump added a new phrase to the stock of improvised riffs he throws out at his rallies: “I love my protesters.” And if my Twitter mentions are any indication, there are a lot of people who think they know why: disruptions inside or outside Trump’s events just might help elect him president.

Wrote one, a conservative: #Dems need to read @rickperlstein’s #Nixonland (#Liberalism gone amok led to riots, causing #conservative backlash.)” Liberals agree. “Rioting only makes Trump stronger,” wrote Esquire’s Charlie Pierce, linking to a clip of police responding to window-smashing and poster-burning at a Trump event in Albuquerque.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/what-know-about-trump-rallies

[marble falls]

3. The photo alone is worth a Pulitzer....

it tells a complete and honest story.


Keshia Thomas deserves recognition for her actions. Especially for those after that event.