Covering a protest of thousands is often chaotic and sometimes dangerous. Trying to tell the personal stories of protesters under those conditions can be difficult at best. But an AP team of dozens of writers, video journalists and photographers did just that over recent weeks, fanning out across the globe to tell the intimate stories of individual protesters as hundreds of thousands took to the streets in opposition of racial injustice.
With datelines from Canberra, Australia to Stockholm to Kansas City, Missouri, and many others, the multiform reporting team of Claire Galofaro, Martha Irvine, Jake Seiner, Brian Mahoney, Brady McCombs, Stacey Plaisance, Robert Bumsted, Maye-E Wong, Charles Riedel, Rick Bowmer, Heather Hollingsworth, Mohamed Ibrahim, Rod McGuirk, Mike Householder, Allen Breed, David Keyton, Colleen Long, Janie Har and Jim Mone captured a tapestry of voices that represents the diversity of the movement.
Eileen Huang, 20, takes a knee during a solidarity rally in Holmdel, N.J., June 11, 2020, calling for justice over the death of George Floyd. Huang, a Yale university junior, wrote a 1,600-word letter to her immigrant elders, pleading with them to understand the massive debt owed to African American civil rights leaders and to join what has become a global movement to fight racism. “Anti-blackness is something deeply rooted in the Asian-American community … We’ve been fed this ‘model minority’ myth … that’s absolutely not true.”
AP Photo / Wong Maye-E
Aysha Jones stands for a portrait in Stockholm, Sweden, June 8, 2020. Born in Gambia, her experience with racism was that of a first-generation outsider – she remembers classmates throwing burnt Swedish meatballs at her, considering her worth nothing more.
AP Photo / David Keyton
Nurse Becca Cooper poses for a portrait during a rally in support of George Floyd in the Brooklyn borough of New York, June 1, 2020. She traveled from Oregon to New York in early April, taking leave from her job as a critical care flight nurse to help combat the coronavirus pandemic seizing the city. She walked into a pandemic afflicting certain communities more than others. “In the last seven weeks, I’ve had three white patients,” she said. “We all read in the newspaper that COVID is disproportionately affecting communities of color. It is so in your face in the ICU.”
AP Photo / Jake Seiner
Indigenous Australian Wendy Brookman, 37, who joined 2,000 people in a peaceful protest in Canberra on June 5, 2020, speaks during an interview in the Australian capital: “Being a mother of five children, it's extremely important for me to make sure that my children are given the same rights as any other child growing up in this day and age,” said Brookman, a teacher and women’s gym owner. Indigenous Australians account for 2% of the nation's adult population and 27% of the prison population.
AP Photo / Rod McGuirk
George Jefferson, right, protests the death of George Floyd during a rally at city hall in downtown Kansas City, Mo., June 5, 2020. Jefferson, a fourth-grade teacher, was protesting in response to his own experiences with the police which have also caused him to address racism in his classroom.
AP Photo / Charlie Riedel
The widely used package – including 14 social videos edited by Darrell Allen, portrait photos, an Instagram story by Alyssa Goodman and multiple video edits by Martha Irvine – had nearly 60,000 views in five days. And a video-led social plan by Ragan Clark has received more than 300,000 views on Twitter.