ROLAKE BAMGBOSE

In the fall of 2016, as Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem protest first dominated headlines and social media, young people across the country, whether high school football players, college volleyballers or kids in a youth orchestra, began to kneel in solidarity with him. 

Shot over a short period of time at Berkeley High School, Stand and Up and Kneel tells the story of how Kaepernick's protest, however one may feel about it, pushed one high school football team into a candid and honest conversation about race and policing in America. 

Many think they know about the violence that has existed in Chicago over decades. This short feature tries to get beyond the overwhelming statistics to depict the consequences of just one family’s loss—the Kargous, as they say goodbye to 19-year-old Prince with the help of Leak & Sons, a funeral home nestled in Chicago’s south side accustomed to serving homicide victims. Leak & Sons is not just a funeral home, but a family business that has deep roots with generations of Chicagoans.

For a little over a year, I visited Leak & Sons, spending time with the directors, ushers, receptionists, and the many distraught families that came through the doors each day. In exchange for that investment of time and emotion, the Kargou family was willing to share their pain during one of the most vulnerable moments a family can experience. Peter, Prince Kargou’s father, brought his children to Chicago to escape a war-torn Liberia. Both he and Prince’s girlfriend, who witnessed the murder, described the tragic way Prince died, shedding light on the toll Chicago’s violence takes on innocent victims.

When Shin Song Hyuk was three years old, an American couple in Detroit adopted him and moved him from South Korea to the United States. His new family changed his name to Adam, but did not fill out the basic forms that guarantee citizenship for international adoptees. This meant Adam was an undocumented immigrant.

Nobody knows exactly how many international adoptees grow up undocumented due to negligence or clerical error, but given the difficulties of adopted life, many of them end up in trouble with the law, which, in turn, opens them up for deportation to homelands they do not remember and cultures which are completely foreign to them.

On January 19, 2017, President Barack Obama gave 330 commutations to nonviolent drug offenders, in a final effort to restore what Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates called, “proportionality to unnecessarily long drug sentences.” It was the highest number of clemencies given during the Obama administration, and the most granted on any one day in U.S. history.

Felicia Smith has dealt with struggles that many individuals encounter post-incarceration, like finding employment, reconnecting with family, securing housing and enrolling in school. I spent time with Felicia one year after her sentence was commuted to explore what her life has been like since her release, and to see how she’s been readjusting after returning home.

David Pilgrim, a Black sociologist, runs the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia out of the small, white, Trump-voting town of Big Rapids, MI. With the help of private donors like Chuck and Ward, an elderly gay couple, Pilgrim believes that sharing his expansive collection can change the ways racism and bigotry are perceived in the United States.

In summer 2017, every major city in Texas joined together to sue the state over controversial Senate Bill 4, originally scheduled to go into effect on September 1, 2017 but blocked by a 11th hour court ordered injunction. For now SB4 is on hold - but the ban is only temporary.

We looked at this law, dissecting it to see how American immigration policy has actually changed since the 2016 election and what, exactly, it might tell us about the Trump administration’s future plans.

In 2016, there were more than 760 homicides in Chicago, the highest figure the city had seen in 30 years. Chicago has four level one adult trauma centers, but not one of them is within 30 minutes of the city's south side, where most of the murders occur.

Chicago has one of the highest homicide rates in the country and one of the worst records for solving murders. And while a lot has been done to address the root of the violence, far less attention has been paid to just how many of these murders do - or don't - get solved.

Since the beginning of 2017, Republicans in over 18 states have proposed bills that would criminalize certain protest tactics. In Missouri, lawmakers want to make it illegal to wear masks, and in Tennessee, lawmakers want to give legal protections to drivers who hit demonstrators with their car. Minnesota State congressman Nick Zerwas thinks protests have gotten out of control and has written two bills to control them. The first would effectively ban demonstrations on highways and at airports. The second would allow the state to sue anyone who attended a protest that was deemed illegal.

Mica Grimm, an organizer for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, is helping lead the opposition against Zerwas’ bill, and believes, "protest is meant to disrupt.” 

In January 2016, the Department of Justice released a report highlighting the urgent need for reform in the Chicago Police Department, citing, among other things, the disproportionate targeting of African Americans.

More than half of the city’s police force is white, even though white people make up less than a third of the city’s population. Officials are trying to change that. As part of an effort launched in 2015 to hire almost a thousand new officers, Chicago has specifically focused on attracting minority recruits. But convincing people to join ranks with officers that they feel have oppressed them isn’t easy.

Dominic Hardie is the basketball coach who tried to sue the NCAA over its ban on convicted felons - citing it as unconstitutional.