from 27 June 2020, The New York Times:

“It’s crazy. I’ve never been to a protest before — like, ever. I got inspired by what people were doing all across America, but there was no protest in Nashville at the time. I was like, why isn’t Tennessee doing anything? Why are they silent?”—Zee Thomas

Two days after George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis, Zee Thomas, 15, posted a tweet: “If my mom says yes I’m leading a Nashville protest.”

Thomas had never been to a protest, let alone organized one. And yet, five days later, with the help of five other teenagers, she was leading a march through her city, some 10,000 strong.

“We didn’t have a podium or anything, we were standing on water coolers to speak,” Thomas said. “I’m an introvert, and when I got up there I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’ But I kept going.”

Thomas and her co-organizers didn’t know it at the time, but in cities across the country, other young women were doing something similar.

“I also want people to know that we’re not strong all the time. We’re allowed to be weak. We are teenagers, we’re young women, and we’re allowed to be emotional, especially when we see people of our skin color getting killed.”

“After the protest, I really couldn’t sleep at all. I was on Twitter, as usual. And there was this one tweet from a mother. And I remember it so clearly, because I started crying. And she just said, ‘I’m happy that my daughter will grow up in a world that these young girls will change.’

“And like, that’s a moment where I felt really powerful, because my main goal, as a person, and as an upcoming activist, is to make sure that people know that things will change. Eventually.”