Freddie Gray’s last walk has incurred expenses that deem a tally. The root cause of this price needs deep analysis. After attending several days of trial, I am befuddled over the events that possibly occurred while Freddie moved in his last walk into a legacy that has pivots him to becoming an agent of change. Here we see Officer Caesar Goodson departs court after Judge Williams rendered the decision for Lt. Miller and a young boy walks in front of the courthouse. We must look with truth into the 6 stops that Freddie rode through while ultimately securing an enduring legacy by his death after a search and frisk arrest that ended with his death seemingly at the 6th stop while in police custody. We hope to secure a peaceful rest for Pepper. Pepper is the nickname that Freddie’s friends say he needed.
Freddie Gray spent most of the last terrifying minutes of his life across the street from an abandoned row house located at 1619 Presbury Street in Northwest Baltimore. After the police chased Freddie down, they frisked him, arrested him and shackled him in a hog tie. As the police drove him to the Baltimore County jail, he repeatedly asked to taken to the hospital because he was ill. The police seemingly did not understand that Freddie Gray was not complaining; not being difficult; not being threatening. To the contrary, in that van, on that night, to those policemen, Freddie Gray pleaded for his life.
Activists from the Gilmor Homes neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore, where Freddie “Pepper” Gray had lived, wanted to do something beyond painting a large outdoor mural to honor him. So neighbors and friends came together, created the “1619 Coalition,” and occupied that abandoned row house of that address on Presbury Street.
They created a community center as “living memorial” to Freddie and named it after another African-American who also knew shackles and beatings: Harriet Tubman. She was a woman in a time when women, especially black women, commanded little respect. She was short of stature. But she possessed the courage of a lion. Having escaped from brutal slavery in the years before the Civil War, she went South again and again and led hundreds of slaves to freedom on the underground railroad.
Her story of bravery and righteousness has slowly become an American epic—so much so that she will soon become the first woma
n ever to appear on US currency. Hence, it is fitting that the 1619 Coalition has named their new community center the “Tubman House.”
The Tubman House is located across from a mural memorializing Freddie Gray’s last walk on this earth. His screams from that terrible evening have shaken the peace of his friends and others in his community. Unbeknownst to most, these screams have been encountered again during court proceedings against police officers who accosted, chased, arrested, escorted and bore witness to Pepper’s death.
On a venture to the Tubman House, I spoke to a neighbor across from the gardens about a housing unit connected to hers that was being demolished. She said it was not as hard as I would have thought; however, her kitchen wall did need repair after the demolition. She said some of the houses are just shells – no flooring, no roof, no basement whatsoever – just a straight deadly drop.
Civil disobedience has been the hallmark for change when we have community members who are not in agreement on solutions for the development of healthy neighborhoods for all. Tubman House adds a protective factor that heals Freddie Gray’s community with positive moments of loving expressions wrapped around our beloved Pepper. We cherish his murals, which will inspire us on our journey to create healthy communities as Pepper rests in peace.
Photographs by Henrieese Roberts.
