By Vivian Shipe
KNOXVILLE, TN — A community in uproar. The boiling point came a little over a week ago when Anthony Thompson Jr. was killed in the bathroom of Austin- East High School by the bullet of a Knoxville Police officer. The decision by the District Attorney not to charge the officer whose gun killed the 17 year old, was the match that lit the kindling of unrest and demand for change. Despite the blows the community has been taking since
January, their toughness and their ability to come together and fight back has never been more evident than the reactions of the community this past week.
After the decision by the DA, peaceful protest have erupted with marches held every night; protest that have disrupted commission and council meetings,, arrests and attempted bans from public spaces by the county. All of this is occurring ahead of the arrival of attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd and who has been retained by the family of “Ant” as the Thompson youth was known. The nightly protests held to raise awareness and demand justice are just one of the ways the community is standing up to fight back against the oppression from which it has suffered.
Even the young children marched. In the second of a series of Moving In Love, youth rallies, the children, ranging in ages of 3 up to their teens marched in love. The youth rallies are designed to move
across the city raising awareness and the children were as vocal in their desire to see change as the adults who have moved their protest across town into the affluent west section of Knoxville. As the people marched to make their demands and needs made known, others are moving to meet needs now.
Old and young alumni of the two merged schools spanning 6 decades, have come together to create an association to meet the needs of the school. The current project of the Austin/Austin-East Alumni Association, is to erect an electronic message board in front of the school to communicate information about the school. Such a sign, which many of the other schools in Knoxville already have, would have been of great use during the shooting as many of the parents had no idea what had happened or where their children were and such a sign would have given important guidance. The association held a nationwide zoom on Saturday to appeal for help financing the sign which will be used to promote positive news of the students and the teachers as they occur.
An example of a positive event for the sign would have been the red carpet event held by the community for the Austin East prom which was held this past weekend. The students got to be announced and walked the red carpet in their prom finery in front of family and friends while being announced by Vice Mayor Gwen McKenzie and others. The Vice Mayor has been very vocal and supportive of the events in the community. She has been at the rallies, the prom and she also stood in the rain for hours at the huge community event, Together We Stand, that rounded out the week offering jobs, vaccines, youth activities, and thousands of dollars of food given away in the heart of the food desert to any one who pulled up and opened their trunks.
Despite the pouring rain, The Together We Stand event also provided the Pfizer vaccine for those 16 and up and brought in employers who came to hire on site with an emphasis on those 16 and 17 and those looking for work after graduation.
