One of the most powerful pictures on social media is this picture of Ieshia Evans. The single mother of a 5 yr old little boy was 1 of about 100 people, including a Black Lives Matter activist, arrested for obstruction of a highway during the Black Lives Matter rally in Baton Rouge.
The demonstrators were accused of blocking highway entrances/exits in protest of police brutality of Blacks & minorities.
The iconic photo was taken by Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans-based photographer, who was in Baton Rouge on Saturday covering protests for the Reuters news agency.
Demonstrators had gathered outside the city’s police department to protest against Tuesday’s police killing of Alton Sterling.
Bachman told BuzzFeed News that between 100-200 protesters were blocking traffic on a highway when law enforcement officers dressed in full riot gear showed up and told the demonstrators to move to the sidewalk.
” I photographed a man arguing with an officer and then I looked over my shoulder and saw her there and she had every intention of not moving. She just stood there and made her stand. I was just happy to be able to capture something like that.”
The woman was quickly detained, Bachman said, but when he checked his camera he knew he had captured a remarkable photo of her defiant act of peaceful civil disobedience.
“That was the first image I transferred [to Reuters] because I knew it was going to be an important photo. You can take images of plenty of people getting arrested, but I think this one speaks more to the movement and what the demonstrators are trying to accomplish here in Baton Rouge.”
Ieshia Evans has now become an Internet and media sensation, trending on all social media networks for her silent courage.
“She was there, she wasn’t resisting, and she had every intention of not moving.”
Ieshia was released from jail this evening around 5:30 pm according to a Twitter poster.
Check out these 5 things you need to know about Ieshia Evans.
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