Second Interview with David Combs: Social Justice Series

Description

David Combs talks about the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, the ethnic makeup of Minneapolis (where Mr. Combs grew up), and the history of policing and police brutality there. He discusses the worldwide movement for social justice that grew from protests against Floyd’s killing, the response to Floyd’s killing in Grand Junction, Colorado, and the protest movement that took shape here. He addresses differences within the local African-American community in their activist approaches to local bias and racism. He talks about his family and prejudice that they have faced in Grand Junction and elsewhere. He speaks about the creation of the Black Citizens and Friends organization out of a need to teach African-American children and locals about Black History and culture, the group’s founding of an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration and the growth of that event, and the group’s other community involvements. He talks about Mesa County’s public officials and their differing attitudes and approaches to issues of race. The interview was conducted on behalf of the Social Justice Archive in the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and Black Citizens and Friends.