PLEASE DONATE HELMETS, HARDHATS, SHOULDER PADS
TO PROTECT OUR VULNERABLE VOLUNTEERS!
Yesterday (October 12th, 2020), at approximately 6 pm, without warning or provocation, two Caucasian goons began hurling projectiles down from the high rooftop of the NAAM/UL-occupied building, into the gravel courtyard where the authentic African American Heritage Museum is conducting our operations.
The first knowledge we had of this attack was the sound of the first projectile hitting the tarpaulin roof of the studio of our co-founding Artist In Residence, Earl Debman, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair. He was very shaken by the surprise attack, describing it as “like the sound of a bomb going off”.
Initially thinking that the projectile had come out of a window, we were then ambushed again –several minutes later—by a second projectile hitting the roof of traveling exhibit tent on the opposite side of the courtyard, this time from an angle that clearly originated from the rooftop.
Turning our attention to the roof, we observed two partially masked but clearly Caucasian individuals crouching behind the roof’s parapet wall, briefly emerging every few minutes to lob another projectile down upon us and our outdoor ground level museum tents. The projectiles turned out to be clods of wet dirt of the sort that is often fills indoor flower pots. These clods were definitely heavy enough to injure a person when thrown from that height.
The attackers kept up their assault for about fifteen minutes, presumably until they ran out of dirt clods to throw. Then they exited the roof back into the building through a trapdoor, to which they obviously had access from the inside, access which they could only have obtained through the auspices of the Urban League.
This is exactly the kind of white supremacist vigilante violence that the Urban League promotes and encourages against Black people and authentically Black-led organizations. This time the projectiles were only heavy, but at least soft. Next time, who knows?
This attack also apparently constitutes the Urban League’s long awaited reply to our last letter to them, which we hand delivered to their spokespeople on August 28th. In this letter, we proposed that a meeting between our organizations take place exactly one month later, September 28th, in Jimi Hendrix Park. We were present in that park throughout the entire day of September 28th, setting up our David Walker Exhibit.
Due to the escalating risk of injury to our volunteers from the increasingly violent vigilantism of the Urban League’s agents, we are calling upon the community to donate helmets, hardhats and shoulder pads to our museum, to increase our volunteers’ chances of surviving future projectile attacks from above.
-The AAHM&CC
The African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center 