Marchers make their way down Route 1 in rural Harford County, Maryland.
×In April 2015, I joined a group of protestors on a very long walk: the March 2 Justice, a nine-day, 250-mile trek from New York City to Washington, D.C., calling for criminal justice reform.
Conceived by Justice League NYC and led by Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez (who would go on to organize the historic Women's March in January 2017), the mission of March 2 Justice was to deliver to Congress the "Justice Package" — three pieces of federal legislation designed to end racial profiling, demilitarize the police, and invest in youth counseling and delinquency prevention.
On the morning of April 13, the march stepped off in Staten Island, the New York City borough where Eric Garner’s dying words of "I Can’t Breathe" became a more urgent echo of past civil rights slogans, such as "I Am a Man" and "I Have a Dream." Along the way to Washington, D.C., marchers put their bodies through the wringer to demonstrate the importance of their cause.
Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez lead the March 2 Justice as it sets out across Outerbridge Crossing from Staten Island.
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Marchers pass under a freeway interchange in central New Jersey.
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Bruce Richard marches in a raincoat in Mercer County, New Jersey.
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Marchers rest in the shade of a shopping cart hut during a lunch break in the parking lot of a Sam's Club in Edison, New Jersey.
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Locals raise their fists in support as marchers travel through Trenton, New Jersey.
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Air mattresses are set up for the marchers in the crypt of Trinity Episcopal Church in Trenton, New Jersey. Sleeping in shared spaces as cavernous as this, the marchers quickly became familiar with each other's snores.
×The 50-odd marchers were a diverse assortment, from 16-year-old Skylar Shafer — a white girl from Litchfield, Connecticut, with an interest in advocating for children affected by war — to 64-year-old Bruce Richard, a former Black Panther who has been an activist since he was a teenager.
The nine-day pilgrimage took us through Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia and Baltimore on the way to the nation’s capital. We walked past endless strip malls and vacant row houses, through budding forests and rolling farmland, over bridges and under freeways. We slept in churches and mosques, universities and community centers. Marchers endured blisters, exhaustion and dehydration. We heard cheers of support and jeers of derision.
Kindred spirits joined in along the way. Philadelphia resident Jason Ford, 53, decided to join spontaneously, and marched all the way to Washington, D.C., with nothing but the overalls he was wearing. Tyler LaFrance, 24, rode a bus for 13 hours to rendezvous with the marchers in Baltimore.
Camaraderie easily emerged among the marchers. People earned nicknames — Big Red, Tiny, Crawfish, Gumby.
Tanya Dickerson speaks to marchers gathered in a parking lot on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Today was her birthday, as well as the four-month anniversary of the night her 26-year-old son Brandon Tate-Brown was shot in the back of the head by Philadelphia police during a car stop.
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A drummer rests after performing at a minimum wage protest in Philadelphia.
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March Director Carmen Perez holds the "Justice Package," three bills designed to outlaw racial profiling, halt the militarization of police forces, and invest in youth delinquency prevention.
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A nurse tapes a marcher's foot before the start of the day's march.
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The march makes its way down Route 1 in southeastern Pennsylvania.
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Pennsylvania state troopers order marchers to stay on the shoulder of the road and refrain from interfering with the flow of traffic on Route 1 in southeastern Pennsylvania. The only person who they asked for identification was Ron Fletcher, center, "so they can see if I have any warrants they can come back and use against us."
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Marchers stretch out after covering twenty-five miles in a day.
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Azizi Curtis and several other marchers are overcome with emotion after hearing a poem by Nicole Webb, a student at Lincoln University. The poem was a plea to God following the death of Trayvon Martin and acquittal of George Zimmerman.
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After a very long day of marching, the staff at Lincoln University was kind enough to keep the pool open late. Six-foot-eight, 375-pound Quadir Lateef took full advantage of the diving board.
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Marchers head down a stretch of Route 1 near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Pennsylvania state troopers had threatened to make arrests if the marchers attempted to walk this stretch. Though the marchers spent the three-mile march to the border on the lookout, no troopers appeared.
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Marchers cross from Pennsylvania into Maryland.
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Jason Ford whistles as the march passes a farm in rural Maryland.
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Tyler gets in some reps at a gas station in northeastern Maryland.
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Shana Salzberg, 22, poses with a picture of her grandfather, a survivor of the Holocaust. She carried the photo with her through the march as inspiration. "I was brought up in a family where you don't let oppression happen to other people."
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Bruce Richard, 64, is a member of the 1199 SEIU union and a former Black Panther. He has been engaged in activism since the age of 15. "The first time that I was brutalized by police I was 12 years old. I was locked up in a jail cell with my cousins, and we were singing some old songs, some doo wops. The guard said 'shut that noise up,' and my cousins kept sinigng, but I shut up. The guard took me outside, lifted me over his head and slammed me down on the ground. And he just walked off because he knew I couldn't move. He came back ten minutes later, dragged me back into the cell, and said, 'Let this serve as warning to you. When I say shut up, that's what I mean.'"
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Mickey Ferrara takes a moment to meditate before marching on.
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Darius Gordon bows his head during a break from marching.
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Marchers pass by a house displaying a modified Confederate flag in Cecil County, Maryland. The march passed within a few miles of Rising Sun, a town known as the Maryland headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan. Several passing drivers greeted the marchers with racial slurs and shouts of "White power!" Residents on foot offered only cold stares.
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Marchers make their way down Route 1 in Maryland after a small rainstorm.
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Marchers run across the Conowingo Dam Bridge in northeastern Maryland. The police had warned the marchers not to take the bridge or they would face arrest. The marchers took it anyway, dashing across the kilometer-long span to avoid being boxed in. Ultimately, the police waved them through, perhaps judging it easier than shutting down the bridge and arresting dozens.
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Berry McKenzie, 22, prepares to rap for the other marchers during an impromptu open mic session at 1199SEIU headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Marchers rest for the night.
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An animal carcass lies in a field in Harford County, Maryland.
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Ron Fletcher keeps cool while marching in 80 degree heat in Harford County, Maryland.
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Marchers pass by a church in Harford County, Maryland.
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Quadir Lateef poses for his next album cover during a rest stop in Maryland.
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Marchers celebrate the conclusion of the day's march.
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Marchers speak to residents at the National Urban League in Baltimore.
×In Baltimore, while we attended a Sunday morning service at Empowerment Temple, Reverend Jamal Bryant announced that Freddie Gray had died. (Gray, a 25-year-old black man, had sustained severe spinal injuries while in Baltimore police custody.) Wails and moans erupted from the assembly, and I felt like I'd had the wind knocked out of me. I wept into my lap for a few moments before remembering to raise my camera and start shooting. The marchers took a detour that day, joining Baltimore residents, including family and friends of Freddie Gray, as they converged on the Western District Baltimore Police Station in protest.
On the morning we arrived in Baltimore, we attended a service at Empowerment Temple. After a sermon about Jonah and the whale, Pastor Jamal Bryant announced that he'd just received word that 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who had been severely injured in Baltimore police custody a few days prior, had just died. Pastor Bryant would deliver the eulogy at Gray's funeral eight days later.
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Naima Moore-Turner raises her fist as the marchers head to the BPD Western District to protest the death of Freddie Gray. Naima had tearfully admitted a few days earlier that she did not want to bring children into a world where they would have to fear being killed by the police.
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Baltimore residents outraged by the death of Freddie Gray fall in with the marchers as they head towards the Western District.
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Marchers and locals assemble outside the BPD Western District in response to the death of Freddie Gray.
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Baltimore residents air their grief and anger over the death of Freddie Gray outside the Baltimore police Western District.
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Baltimore residents inspect flyers handed out by marchers walking through west Baltimore.
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Local kids fool around as they follow the marchers through west Baltimore.
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Tamika Mallory and Carlene Pinto work the phones to prepare arrangements for the final days of marching.
×The day after Freddie Gray died, amid periodic bursts of wind, rain and lightning, the ragged band of marchers finally crossed into the District of Columbia.
Naima Moore-Turner savors the first drops of a rain storm as the marchers near D.C.
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Sophie Ellman-Golan leads the marchers in stretches ahead of the final push into Washington, D.C.
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March co-Chair Tamika Mallory organizes efforts by phone while marching through a rainstorm near D.C.
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March director Carmen Perez rallies the marchers as they emerge from a rain storm just a mile from Washington, D.C.
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Darius Gordon carries Skylar Shafer as they come within sight of the Washington, D.C. border.
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March leaders Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez, and Tamika Mallory reflect on their 250-mile journey shortly after crossing into Washington, D.C.
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Berry McKenzie, 22, laughs deliriously as he describes his pain from severe dehydration. Berry walked the 250-mile trek in hoodie, jeans, and Timberland boots. After the last day, he was hospitalized for dehydration. "I could've stopped so many times," he said, reeling, barely conscious. "But I didn't."
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Marchers watch a lightning storm unfold over Union Temple Baptist Church after finally arriving in Washington, D.C.
×On April 21, the marchers were joined by hundreds more as they walked through D.C. on their way to deliver the Justice Package to Congress. On the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, they held a final rally featuring musical performances and speeches. The speakers ranged from actor Danny Glover, to members of Congress, to the families of those killed by police violence. But perhaps the most resonant speaker was Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis. In 1965, his skull was fractured by Alabama State Troopers on Bloody Sunday, the first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery.
Marchers take to the streets of Washington, D.C. on their way to their final rally at the Capitol building.
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Marchers Anthony Plummer and Mickey Ferrara participate in a die-in outside of the Supreme Court on their way to the final rally at the Capitol building.
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Marchers pass by the Supreme Court on their way to their final rally at the Capitol building.
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Hundreds assemble on the west lawn of the US Capitol for the marcher's final rally.
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Hawk Newsome revels as the marchers finally arrive at the US Capitol.
×"We were beaten, teargassed, trampled by horses. But we never gave up. We never gave in. You must never, ever give up or give in. You must keep your faith, keep moving your feet and keep putting your bodies on the line … Thank you for marching. Thank you for picking them up and putting them down. Let’s continue to walk and work together, until we redeem the soul of America." - Rep. John Lewis
March leaders Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez stand as civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis praises their march.
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