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Encore: 'What Happens After the Protests' Series

WMUK | Earlene McMichael

A year ago this week, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by police officer Derrick Chauvin, sparking protests around the world, including in Kalamazoo. WMUK’s Earlene McMichael produced a three-part series, talking to African-Americans who had concerns about whether the hundreds of white allies with whom they protested alongside would continue working for reform and racial justice once the big demonstrations died down.Today we re-aired the third part in that series. It originally aired in June of 2020. 

JoVaughan Head was among the three Kalamazoo residents we interviewed. He co-founded a change-agent group during last year's protests. It's now a nonprofit organization called Uplift Kalamazoo that brings resources and aid to the Kalamazoo area Black community, and works for solutions to the effects of systemic racism. It has helped with small home repairs and often provides free food to those in need regularly, for example, while continuing to stage protests against police brutality.

The “What Happens After the Protests” series recently won the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ award for Best Mini Documentary or series in Public Radio Group 1.

Listen to the three-part series below:

After the Protests, What Then? Some Blacks Wonder (Part 3)

Kim Guess participated in demonstrations for the first time, says it's no time to be silent (Part 2)

JoVaughan Head joined white protesters in downtown Kalamazoo, but became disenchanted (Part 1)

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