Ruddy Roye Photography

When Living Is A Protest

Sixty years ago, marching was considered an act of protest. Thankfully, I have been able to grow up on the backs, sweat, and blood of those who made strides and steps in the direction that enabled me to do something other than pick cotton and chop sugar cane. 

However, this life is not without its scars-- memories and vestiges of the toll “the struggle” had on a race of people. In 2015, I walk around Brooklyn, Mississippi, Memphis, Manhattan, and Ferguson reading the tales of those living is a testimony to this ongoing struggle. 

This series is my attempt to show a six-month glimpse into what it means to live in “the struggle.” From photographing everyday life in places like Memphis and Mississippi, to documenting the tumultuous protests from the streets of Ferguson and New York City, I show you the faces of those whose lives are spent living in protest. 

  • A Humanist's EyeTwenty year old Robert Scott strutted across the low grassy field and stopped to ask me if I was ok. I was meditating.He introduced himself and told me he was one of the workers that refurbished the apartments at Shack Up Inn -- an offbeat southern style bed and breakfast spot with historical roots to the cotton industry. I asked Robert if he heard about Mike Brown and Eric Garner and he shared this,{quote}It's messed up but it's nothing new. It is something that has been going on since the beginning of time. It will never get better, it will only get worse. It has to play itself out. We as black people just need to prepare ourselves for anything. The police want to control us, if we object we are penalized and that's just where we are right now.{quote} Today his crew were roofing and refurbishing more rooms on the property.
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy SeriesEighteen year old Akerian was leaving his job as person who ties steel on a construction site. I stopped him to ask him how he felt about the Michael Brown and Eric Garner killings.{quote}I don't understand how justice is in this country. The police took out his gun and shot the unarmed young man, that's not right. It ain't how it should be that is all I know.{quote}
  • {quote}Deeply Torn{quote} | Legacy SeriesIt was a balmy evening; the brisk wind reminded me that it was still winter but the night felt comfortable. Damion Portis senior looked at me and nodded in the customary way; nose pushing upwards before dipping down. I walked over to ask him about Michael Brown and Eric Garner. {quote}In the case of Michael Brown and the officer, they were both wrong.In my life I have dealt with a lot of white cops. The thing that help me is understanding that I  was born in a world that is not fair. My elders raised me to play chess and not checkers. You have to navigate the path that is given to you, You have to finesse the relationship you foster with the police. As a young black man I have to perfect that for my own survival -- it's essential.{quote}
  • Homage to Robert Johnson | Legacy Series
  • Castaway
  • A Humanist's EyeAs I trip over images of bleached white cotton, coloured by the agony and sweetness of the Blues, the importance of what that industry was to this region is not lost on me, however seeing all the different threads that constructs this tapestry that is Mississippi, is humbling.Kiayanneka Wesley drives a car with a 4.6 Litre engine. She roared down on a Mississippi road, her lashes squinting as she bounced on the uneven tarmac.I wanted to talk to her about Michael Brown but she didn't know what I was talking about.As far as I know, Mound Bayou has a population of about 1500. The community which was founded around 1887, rose to prominence as the first incorporated black township in the United States. Walking around this town, I am speechlessly intrigued. So many questions.
  • Life After Prison | Legacy SeriesThrough teary eyes she repeated the words, {quote}Hold on, keep the faith, stay strong.{quote} The salty waters rolled down her skinny cheeks. Her tears trickled slowly  like weighted sacks bursting at the seams to detain a troubled life.Janice Marie Spears at 47 year old was trying to put her life back together. Four years ago she was serving a 10 year sentence for drug possession.Yesterday she was walking towards the Lewis Johnson Senior Citizen Complex inquiring about health insurance. Because of her prison conviction she revealed that she did not qualify for a number of government assistance programs.Ten years in the Ranking County Prison between 2000-2010, Janice was able to get her a high school education, but back on the street Ms Spears a single mother cannot find work.
  • Two Stop Signs Does a Town Make?
  • The Broke Spoke I Home of Favre
  • Solidarity |  Legacy SeriesTony has 8 more months left on a 4 year bid. He is serving part of his time working in the kitchen at the Lewis Johnson Senior Citizen Complex in Grenada Mississippi. I asked him about Michael Brown and he began shaking his head from side to side, lowering and piercing the concrete floor with his gaze.  {quote}It wasn't fair to kill him, he was unarmed, they shot that young man down dead. It wasn't fair,{quote} he said looking to the floor again.(Side Bar) Convict leasing as it is called began during the Reconstruction Period because farmers needed to find replacements for the labor force once slaves were freed.I read somewhere that some prisoners make anywhere from 6 to 15 cents an hour these days. The legacy of using prison labour in the South felt normal.
  • Applause for Officer Darren Wilson
  • Support of Officer Darren Wilson
  • {quote}The Stripes We Wear“ | Legacy SeriesLawrence McNair stands on Florissant Street without uttering a word. His eyes squinting as he faced up the  98 degrees of unforgiving heat, his arms up, and two bull eyes pasted on his chest and back.The words {quote}Don't shoot{quote} are scribbled inside his palms. {quote}Someone has to stand up to these crooked cops and now is the time,{quote} he said to me when I asked why he was baking in the Sun.{quote}This is not a sacrifice, I have to do this.{quote}
  • {quote}The Man on the Street{quote} | Legacy SeriesJon Pirtle drove down from Indiana because he could not as he put it, {quote}continue to sit on my sofa and watch what was happening in Ferguson. It didn't feel right.“ He said that in his home State he had witnessed and heard of the same circumstances happening to his friends.{quote}My friends have been victims, I cannot just be silent. Mike Brown deserved better,{quote} he said.
  • Caged Panthers| Legacy Series
  • {quote}A Father's Solemn Walk{quote}Flanked by family members and the Nation of Islam, Michael Brown Sr. walks into the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church to attend the funeral service of his son Michael Brown Jr.
  • {quote}Who is our Black Leader{quote}I  watched this young man walk up to the make shift shrine where Michael Brown was killed, with a portrait of Malcolm X tucked under his arm. In the midst of a dying fire, it suddenly occurred to me that this portrait was the most I had seen of a black leader since I began walking that stretch of road.My heart has yet to resolve what I saw in Ferguson Missouri. I do not understand why the whole of America did not stop what they were doing and rise up to ensure that another young black youth does not lose their life so easily by the guns of unfeeling police officers. So today I will ask a question instead of my usual conjecture.Where is the Black leadership of this country?
  • “He’s dead, he’s not sleeping”
  • A Broken Community | Legacy Series
  • Isolated In Ferguson“ | Legacy Series{quote}Why was he shot so many times,{quote} 19 year old Dante Newsome questioned, {quote}I am out here because I don't understand this. Why did he lose his life so senselessly.?{quote}{quote}This can happen to me. Everyday that I am out hur, I feel threatened by the police.{quote}He took a puff on the lit cigarette he had between his fingers. The fire seem to come up from his belly and through his nostrils -- his words felt hot, infused by anger and frustration. {quote}I feel helpless, I don't feel safe hur, they could have tasered him.{quote}
  • {quote}Reading the Black and White“ |Legacy SeriesTravis Sowell pulled out his newspaper to discuss an article he was reading. The article was reporting that the St. Louis corporate elite were using the cops to terrorize Black people in Ferguson on behalf of a powerful local ruling class in St. Louis.  Across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Ill., in 1917, white racist mobs murdered 250 Black people. Children were dragged off streetcars and killed. This bloody massacre wasn’t spontaneous. It was promoted by a racist campaign in local newspapers.
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy Series {quote}My son was my heart and now he has been taken away from me so innocently. He hasn't done nothing wrong, he is a good man he love his family he love his baby girl, he was going to bring home my granddaughter to visit me for the first time in two years and now I will never get the opportunity to spend time with my son and my grand baby. My son was my life. He didn't deserve to die like that,{quote} these were the tearful words of Sylvia Palmer, the mother of the Akai Gurley the Brooklyn man that was shot by an NYPD officer recently.
  • Justice | Legacy Series
  • I Can’t Breathe | Legacy Series
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy SeriesFearing arrest a protestor runs away from a wall of NYPD officers.
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy SeriesAs marchers braved the cold rain and took to the street on the third day, they were met with a less tolerant NYPD. At every chance protestors were dragged from the street and shoved into a van but not before being handcuffed and photographed.
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy Series
  • Who Do You Protect? | Legacy Series
  • Black Lives Matter | Legacy Series
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy Series
  • Fuck police |Legacy Series
  • I Can't Breathe | Legacy SeriesFive year old Delilah looks up at the pavilion and asks her mother, {quote}Mom, do those police officers understand why these people are protesting?{quote}{quote}Some of them do and some of them don't,{quote} Susan replies.They were both at a {quote}Die-In{quote} staged at Grand Central Station.
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