Pregnant woman's protest sign sends powerful message on being a mom of black children
Among the protesters at a recent demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter movement was a pregnant woman holding a powerful sign showing the concerns of the mothers of black children.
"We are not carrying for 9 months, then struggling during labor for 9 hours, just for you to kneel on their neck for 9 minutes," the sign read. "Black Lives Matter."
The sign was held at a protest on June 3 in Washington, D.C. by Thema, a 26-year-old mother of one African American son and another on the way, who asked that her last name not be used.
"I felt very empowered holding my sign up," Thema told "Good Morning America." "It made me very emotional."
Thema told "GMA" she wanted to paint a very real picture of what it's like to be a mom of black children in today's world where the deaths of black people at the hands of police have been put in the spotlight.
Thema's sign specifically called out the death of George Floyd, who died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis after a police officer appeared to have held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.
"As a mother of two African American boys, it angered me to think of the fact that we as mothers go through so much to birth the world ... some of us even come close to death just to birth our children," she said. "Then just to have their lives taken away from us within nine minutes from police officers who took a vow to protect people of all colors."
Thema marched at the protest in front of the U.S. Capitol with the Freedom Fighters, a Washington, D.C.-based group of activists. She said fellow protesters applauded the sign and she hopes police officers present at the march and around the country received the message as well.
"I hope the police officers that have seen my sign take a second to think about the families [and] remember that they are not above the law, they just enforce the laws," she said. "New laws need to be in place. True justice needs to be served. New and better training needs to be in place for some current officers and new upcoming officers."
