Listen to James’s Story

James Platts-Mills 

My name is James Platts-Mills. This photo was taken on August 13th, 2017, a day after the horrors of the Unite the Right rally, and a bit more than 24 hours after Heather Heyer was murdered. I attended the vigil with my wife, who at the time was pregnant with our twin girls, now four, and my eldest daughter on my shoulders, who was five at the time. The Charlottesville community was still reeling from the shocking hatred and senseless violence that was on display that weekend. And this was the first public opportunity to gather, mourn and try to process what had happened. It was also a chance to have our first tender conversations with our daughter about beliefs and acts that could be hard to comprehend, let alone explain. While some details have faded, I remember moments from the vigil while the memorial to Heather adorned with flowers and candles. The dense crowd of community members searching for meaning and understanding in the face of loss. Words from friends and other members of the community. Singing I think I remember this little light of mine and peace like a river, at least a fleeting sense of unity and commonality after a devastatingly fractious and divisive weekend. But there was complexity, too, as the weekend's events were being pulled into a larger narrative. National media were there when a speaker referred repeatedly and unknowingly to our city as Charlotte, while calling for continued confrontation with white supremacists. There were some boos and angry responses from the crowd. Perhaps that moment was a microcosm for the struggles the city has faced since the tension between trying to restore some unity and calling out and exposing the city's deeply rooted history of racism and making meaningful changes to make the city a better place for all of its citizens. My daughter is ten now. I hope she will inherit a city that we are all proud of.

Music credit: Mimmi Bangoura / Where She’ll Go / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com