Sandra Bland Did Not Kill Herself

by Crystal A. deGregory

A historian and storyteller whose research interests include black higher education and college student activism, Dr. Crystal A. deGregory is an associate professor of history who most recently served as the award-winning inaugural director of the Atwood Institute for Race, Education, and the Democratic Ideal at Kentucky State University.

Years-old footage of Sandra Bland’s July 2015 arrest, which led to her death three days later in a Texas jail cell surfaced on Tuesday afternoon.

I did not watch the video. I do not need to. I know that Sandra Bland did not kill herself—a morally corrupt justice system did.

One may take issue with such an admittedly untested accusation, but I don’t care. I don’t care about what you think is right or wrong any more than the State Trooper cared about wielding a gun and training it on Bland’s person.

I am tired of black trauma. I am literally sick of black death.

I don’t believe in an ostensibly, systemically corrupt system’s commitment to convicting itself any more than the state trooper’s reckless abandon believed that Bland’s life mattered when he pursued the “routine” traffic stop that led to the taking of her life.

Sandra Bland did not kill herself.

Bland, a socially-connected college graduate sat in jail for three days because of a corrupt justice system and its pipeline to the prison industrial complex.

And we, her family, friends, and community could not resource the $500—10 percent of the $5,000 bond that had been set for her by a Waller County, Texas judge—required in exchange for her freedom.

Read entire article at Atlanta Voice